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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



STUDIES IN HISTORY, ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC LAW 

EDITED EY THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE 
OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 

Volume LXIV] [Number 1 

Whole Number 154 

RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 

ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, POLITICAL 

1865-1872 




3feto Iflork 

THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 

LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., AGENTS 
London : P. S. King & Son, Ltd. 

I9I5 



Monograph 



Columbia Itmuerstiii 



FACULTY OF POLITI CAL SCIENCE 

Nicholas Murray Butler, LL.D., President. Munroe Smith, LL.D., Professor 
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sor of Political Economy and Finance. H. L. Osgood, LL.D., Professor of History. W. 
A. Dunning, LL.D., Professor of History and Political Philosophy. J. B. Moore, LL.D., 
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sor of Political Economy. H. L. Moore, Ph.D., Professor of Political Economy. W. 
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tory. G. W. Botsford, Ph.D., Professor of Plistory. V. G. Simkhovitch, Ph.D., 
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H. Johnson, Ph.D., Professor of History. S. McC. Lindsay, LL.D., Professor of Social 
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fessor of Constitutional Law. H. R. Mussey, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Economics. 
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ant Professor of Sociology. E. E. Agger, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Economics. 
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1 

RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



STUDIES IN HISTORY, ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC LAW 

EDITED BY THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE 
OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 

Volume LXIV] [Number 1 

Whole Number 1 54 

RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 

ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, POLITICAL 

1865-1872 

BY v/ 

C. MILDRED THOMPSON, Ph.D., 

Instructor in History in Vassar College 




THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 

LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., AGENTS 
London : P. S. King & Son, Ltd. 



Copyright, 1915 

BY 

MILDRED THOMPSON 



GU401436 



JON 13 1915 



fr. 



PREFACE 



The material for this monograph would never have 
been collected had it not been for the kind assistance of 
many friends in Georgia. In x\tlanta, Miss Sallie Eugenia 
Brown and Mrs. V. P. Sisson put at my disposal their 
interesting and valuable papers, and Mr. Clark Howell 
of the Atlanta Constitution helped materially in giving 
me access to newspaper files. Mrs. Maud Barker Cobb, 
Miss Dailey, and Miss Thornton of the Georgia State 
Library, have been untiring in their services. In Savan- 
nah, I am indebted to Mr. William Harden of the Georgia 
Historical Society Library, and especially to Mr. Wym- 
berly Jones DeRenne of Wormsloe for his generous hos- 
pitality in allowing me to use his unique and extensive 
collection of material pertaining to the history of Geor- 
gia. I am under obligations to Professor Robert Pres- 
ton Brooks of the University of Georgia for helpful sug- 
gestions, and to Professor Uirich B. Phillips of the 
University of Michigan, w T ho put at my disposal copies 
of valuable letters. To my colleague and friend, Professor 
Eloise Ellery of Vassar College, I am indebted for help 
in the joyless task of proof-reading. Without the con- 
stant encouragement and helpful criticism of my teacher, 
colleague and friend, Professor Lucy M. Salmon of Vassar 
College, this labor would not have come to completion. 

Anything of bias or inaccuracy or limited vision in 
this essay is the fault of the author. Anything of fair- 
ness or wisdom or truth that it may contain must be 

4A 



4B PREFACE 

ascribed to Professor William Archibald Dunning of 
Columbia University, in whom many students of Recon- 
struction History have found their guide and inspiration. 

C. Mildred Thompson. 

Poughkeepsie, N. Y., March 15, 1915. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



PART I.— ECONOMIC READJUSTMENT AND 



REORGANIZATION, 1865-1866 

CHAPTER I 
Introduction — Georgia in the War 

PAGE 

1. Population . 13 

2. Agriculture • * . . 14 

3. Industries 17 

4. Commerce 20 

5. Railroads 23 

6. Banks - 26 

7. State finance 28 

8. War politics 31 

9. Summary: Condition of Georgia at the close of the war. ... 40 

CHAPTER II 
Transition from Slavery to Freedom 

1. Problems of peace 42 

2. The negro enjoying freedom 43 

3. Migration of negroes . 44 

4. Care of destitute freedmen 47 

5. Control of vagrancy 49 

6. Rumor of insurrection 50 

7. Question of labor 52 

8. Attitude of white people toward emancipation 53 

9. Improved labor situation in 1866 54 

10. Negroes in towns 55 

11. Freedmen on the Sea Islands 57 

12. Report of General Steedman and General Fullerton 58 

13. Experience of Frances Butler Leigh 60 

14. General Tillson of the Freedmen 's Bureau 61 

15. Activities of the Freedmen 's Bureau ^ - 62 

16. Criticism of the Freedmen' s Bureau 63 

17. Address of H. V. Johnson before the Convention 66 

5] 5 



6 CONTENTS [6 

PAGE 

CHAPTER III 

Labor and Land 

1. Attempt of planters to continue the old system 68 

2. Supervision of labor contracts 69 

3. Conditions in Southwest Georgia 70 

4. Wages in 1865 73 

5. Difficulties in money and share systems of payment 73 

6. Standard of wages set by the Freedmen's Bureau 75 

7. Labor troubles 78 

8. Negro land owners 79 

9. Negro tenants. 80 

'10. The negro family as an industrial unit 82 

11. Exodus of negro women from field labor 83 

12. Failure of crops in 1865-1866 84 

13. Credit system 87 

14. Beginning of the break-up of plantations 88 

15. Emigration and immigration 91 

CHAPTER IV 

Commercial Revival 

1. Cotton trade 95 

2. Cotton prices 97 

3. Business in cities and towns 98 

4. Resurrection of Atlanta . , , 98 

5. Columbus 101 

6. Cotton shipping in Savannah 101 

7. Augusta 102 

8. Macon, Athens, Milledgeville 103 

9. Manufactures 104 

10. Repair of railroads 105 

11. Banking no 

12. State finance , in 

CHAPTER V 

Social Readjustment 

1. Poverty 116 

2. Shifting in social classes 118 

3. Education 119 

4. First common-school law 121 

5. University of Georgia 122 

w 6. Education of freedmen 124 



7 ] CONTENTS j 

PAGE 

7. Attitude of Georgians toward Northerners , . . . 127 

8. Race relations 129 

9. Social disorder 131 

CHAPTER VI 

Political Reorganization 

1. Military rule 136 

2. Provisional government 144 

3. Appointment of Provisional Governor Johnson 145 

4. Members of the Constitutional Convention 148 

5. Work of the Convention 150 

6. Reorganized state government 153 

7. Election of United States Senators 154 

8. Ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment 156 

9. Freedmen's Code Commission 157 

10. Laws concerning freedmen 158 

11. Attitude of Georgia people toward Presidential Reconstruction. 160 

12. Summary, 1865-1866 165 

PART II.— MILITARY AND POLITICAL RECON- 
STRUCTION, 1867-1872 

CHAPTER VII 
Military Rule 

1. Public opinion on the Reconstruction Acts 171 

2. Letter of ex-Governor Brown 172 

3. Military rule under General Pope 175 

4. Newspaper and Jury Orders 177 

5. Removal of General Pope 178 

6. Military rule under General Meade 179 

7. Relation of military to civil authority 180 

8. Differences between General Meade and Governor Bullock . . 183 

9. Registration 186 

10. Constitutional Convention, 1867-1868 188 

11. Personnel of the Convention 189 

12. Work of the Convention 193 

CHAPTER VIII 

Organization of the Reconstruction Government 

1. Political campaign, April, 1868 199 

2. Democratic Conservative Party 200 



8 



CONTENTS 



[8 



PAGE 



3. Nominations by the Republican Committee 201 

4. Issues of the campaign . 202 

5. Election of R. B. Bullock as governor 204 

6. Political composition of the legislature 207 

7. Question of eligibility of members 208 

8. Election of United States Senators 209 

^—9. Expulsion of negroes from the legislature 211 

10. Personnel of the reconstruction government 216 

11. Influence of ex-Governor Brown 223 

CHAPTER IX 

State Economy under the Bullock Regime 

1 . Charges of mismanagement against the Bullock government. . 226 

2. Expenses 227 

3. Bonds. 229 

4. Repudiation 234 

5. State aid to railroads 235 

6. Brunswick and Albany R. R 237 

7. Corrupt management of the Western and Atlantic R. R. . . . 238 

8. Investigating committees 241 

9. Lease of the Western and Atlantic R. R 245 

10. Organization of the leasing company 247 

11. Question of the fairness of the lease 251 

CHAPTER X 

Reorganized Reconstruction ; Restoration of Home Rule 

1. Question of the admission of Georgia before Congress .... 255 

2. Conditions in Georgia 257 

3. Ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment 260 

4. Reorganization 262 

5. Terry's Purge , 263 

6. Toombs's views on the reorganization of the legislature . . . 265 

7. Attempt at prolongation of Republican control 267 

8. Final admission of Georgia, February, 1871 269 

9. Restoration of home rule " 270 

10. Democratic victory in the state election, December, 1870 . . . 271 

11. Resignation and flight of Governor Bullock 271 

12. Investigation by Democratic committees 272 

13. Undoing of Reconstruction 274 



9] 



CONTENTS 



9 



PART III.— ECONOMIC PROGRESS AND SOCIAL 

CHANGES 



CHAPTER XI 

PAGE 

Agriculture, 1867-1872 

1. Marked changes in the agricultural system 279 

2. Number and size of farms 280 

3. Decrease in the size of the unit of cultivation 281 

4. Loss in land values 283 

5. Labor supply 284 

6. Methods of cultivation and employment 290 

7. Process of disintegration of the plantation 293 

8. Rates of wages 295 

9. Negro labor convention 297 

10. Effect of politics on labor 297 

11. Production and price of cotton 298 

12. Decrease in other agricultural products 303 

CHAPTER XII 

Industry, Commerce, Banking 

1. Manufactures 305 

2. Increase in some industries 306 

3. Textiles 306 

4. Lumber 308 

5. Industrial labor 309 

6. Woman and child labor 309 

7. Railroads 310 

8. Central R. R. System 311 

9. Georgia R. R. and others 315 

10. Enterprises of H. I. Kimball * 320 

11. Banks 324 

12. Trade 326 

13. City growth 328 

14. Savannah ....... 330 

15. Macon 330 

16. Atlanta . 331 

CHAPTER XIII 

Schools, Churches, Courts 

1. Organization of the State Public School System . 335 

2. Public schools in cities 338 

3. University of Georgia 338 



IO CONTENTS [ IO 

PAGE 

4. Emory and Mercer universities 339 

5. Educational work of the Freedmen's Bureau . 340 

6. Churches 343 

7. Reconstruction in the Episcopal Church 343 

8. Continued division in other churches 344 

9. Newspapers under reconstruction 347 

10. Changes in population 349 

11. Courts 352 

12. Judicial appointments 354 

13. Litigation after the war 355 

CHAPTER XIV 

Ku Klux and Social Disorder 

1. " Outrages" in two sections of the state 361 

2. Conditions in the northwest 362 

3. Conditions in the eastern cotton belt 366 

4. Organization of the Ku Klux Klan 369 

5. Disturbance in cities 376 

6. Disturbance on the coast 381 

7. Ogeechee insurrection . 383 

8. Camilla riot 384 

9. Murder of G. W. Ashburn 385 

10. Loyal Leagues 386 

11. Purpose of the Ku Klux movement 388 

CONCLUSION 

1. Emancipation, the basic fact of reconstruction 395 

2. Beginnings of transformation in 1865-1872 . . ■. 395 

3. Effects of emancipation on agriculture 306 

4. Comparatively slight industrial development 398 

5. Social disturbance 399 

6. Political results 399 

7. Advance toward greater social democracy 400 

Bibliography 402 



PART I 

ECONOMIC READJUSTMENT AND 
REORGANIZATION 

1865-1866 



CHAPTER I 

Introduction— Georgia in the War 

Reconstruction in Georgia can be understood only by 
seeing, in the first place, what were the effects of the war 
on the state — how population, white and black, was altered ; 
to what extent a war economy injured the great agricultural 
and commercial interests and developed or transformed in- 
dustrial enterprise; what were the resources of the state, 
its debit and its credit; and in what political temper the 
people of Georgia met the new business of statehood in 
1865. 

The effects of the war on population can be determined 
only approximately, as no census was taken until five years 
after the close of the war. The census of 1870, however, 
shows a gain in the ten-year period of over one hundred 
thousand in the total population, a little less than twelve 
per cent increase, much less than in the preceding and the 
following decades — thirty-one per cent in 1840-50, sixteen 
per cent in 1850-60, and thirty per cent in 1870-80. 1 Esti- 
mates of the loss in white population by war vary from 
thirty to forty thousand. 2 Apart from the consideration of 
actual numbers lost, the absence of thousands of adult white 
men in the armies seriously affected the producing capacity 
of the state during the war, and the ten or fifteen years 
after paid the price of the loss of young men from the 

1 U. S. Census, 1870, vol. i, pp. 4, 5. 

2 Macon Telegraph, December 29, 1865; Joint Committee on Recon- 
struction, 1866, pt. iii, p. 131. 

13] 13 



I 4 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ I4 

workers, made up only in part by immigration from the 
North. Moreover, progressive citizenship suffered not only 
from the death of thousands of young men in battle, but 
also from the lack of education and peaceful training which 
was the cost of four years of military service to many 
youthful volunteers. Effects of the war on the blacks can 
be even less accurately computed. Some of the negroes 
wandered off with the Northern armies in 1864, compara- 
tively few, however, out of the total number; some were 
transferred by their owners to plantations in the South 
and the West, but on the whole, their number was probably 
not much less in 1865 than in i860. 

Georgia, an agricultural, exporting state, found difficulties 
during the war not so much in raising a crop, for her terri- 
tory was practically free from invasion until the last year 
of the conflict, as in marketing what she raised. Under 
normal circumstances the greatest agricultural asset of 
Georgia was cotton, produced in the broad belt of rich 
black land stretching across the central part of the state, 
diagonally from southwest toward northeast. To the north 
and west of this belt was the grain-producing area and to 
the southeast, piny barrens, with sea-island cotton and rice 
along the coast lands and islands. When a state of war 
closed the Northern market and when the extension of 
actual blockade of Southern ports became effective, need 
of agricultural adjustment was apparent. In the season of 
1861, the Georgia planter was not deterred by any fear of 
war from putting his usual acreage in cotton. The com- 
mon attitude, as reflected in the newspapers, was that the 
Yankees would not fight, and even if they did the South 
could whip them in short order. Then, too, that cotton 
was king was the chief article in the creed of every South- 
ern planter. If a fight should come on, the need of North- 
ern manufacturers and the necessity of England would soon 



X c] INTRODUCTION— GEORGIA IN THE WAR r ^ 

aid Southern arms in restoring peace on the South's own 
terms. But by the end of the first year, the gravity of the 
situation called for a resolution in the state legislature, 
recommending planters to reduce the cotton crop for 1862, 
and plant more grain for home consumption and for the 
Confederate armies. 1 This advice was not followed to any 
appreciable extent, for by 1862 the agricultural problem of 
Georgia was rapidly growing serious. During the year 
the Federal army cut off connections with Kentucky and a 
large part of Tennessee, the source of much of the grain 
and meat consumed in Georgia, and at the same time two 
cotton crops on hand presaged low prices, even if the con- 
stant expectation of a removal of the blockade by English 
intervention should be fulfilled. In response to a request 
for his views, Governor Brown wrote a public letter in 
February, 1862, at the beginning of the planting season, 
urging the people of Georgia to reduce the cotton acreage 
so as to double the usual crop of Indian corn, produce a 
larger crop of potatoes and yams, increase the usual 
amount of beets, turnips, peas, and pay more attention to 
raising hogs and cattle. 2 In December, 1862, the legis- 
lature made its recommendation of the previous year man- 
datory in an act " To prevent and punish the planting and 
cultivating, in the State of Georgia, over a certain quan- 
tity of land in Cotton during the war with the Abolition- 
ists." The amount was limited to three acres to each hand 
between fifteen and fifty-five years, and of hands older or 
younger two should be counted as one. Violation was de- 
clared a misdemeanor with a fine of $500 for every acre 
over and above the amount allowed, one-half of which was 
to go to the prosecutor or informer and the other half for 

1 Arts of the General Assembly, 1861, p. 137. 

8 Letter of Gov. Brown to Linton Stephens, February 25, 1862, in 
Brown Scrap Books. 



j6 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ x g 

the support of indigent soldiers in the county. 1 It is impos- 
sible to determine how far this law had effect. The comr> 
troller general attempted to collect crop statistics, but re- 
turns were too incomplete and unsatisfactory to print. 2 

Still other official measures were taken to protect the food 
supply of the state. On February 28, 1862, a proclamation 
of the governor ordered all distilleries closed and instructed 
the management of the state road (Western and Atlantic 
R. R.) not to transport whisky, and recommended other 
railroads to follow the instruction. 3 The proclamation was 
followed by an act of the legislature, intended to prevent 
unnecessary consumption of grain by prohibiting distilla- 
tion, except for medicinal, chemical, hospital, and mechan- 
ical purposes. 4 Supplementary laws to enforce this act in 
1863 show that the matter was not one to be settled by a 
single legislative measure. In the northern part of the 
state in regions where transportation was especially diffi- 
cult, the only way by which the farmer could dispose of 
his grain to advantage was by distilling it, as he found 
more certain sale and easier transportation for whisky 
than for corn in bulk. Recognizing this hardship on the 
farmer in remote districts, the act of November 22, 1862, 
provided that distillation allowed under contract for the 
Confederate government must be carried on at places at 
least twenty miles from a railroad or navigable stream. 5 

Labor difficulties played no great part in the agricultural 
problem of Georgia until the end of the war. Practical 
unanimity of opinion testifies that the slaves continued 

1 Acts of the General Assembly, 1861, p. 137; 1862, pp. 5-6. 

2 Report of the Comptroller General, 1863, p. 28. 

3 Southern Confederacy, March 4, 1862. 

4 Acts of the General Assembly, 1862, p. 25. 

5 Ibid., p. 26. 



!7] INTRODUCTION— GEORGIA IN THE WAR 

faithful during the years of war, causing no disturbance 
until 1864, and then only in the path of Sherman's invasion, 
where droves of them wandered away from the plantations 
to follow the soldiers. In the northern part of the state, 
where there were few blacks, a dearth of labor was caused 
by the drain of the armies on the white population, and 
women worked in the fields in the place of the men of the 
family who had gone to the war. 1 The cultivation of rice 
and sea-island cotton was practically abandoned after 1862. 
Many of the planters transported their slaves inland, and 
the fields and rice swamps were left to themselves or to 
the negroes that remained in actual freedom. On these 
abandoned coast lands General Sherman established colo- 
nies of free blacks in 1865. 

The decade before the war saw the beginning of many 
new mills and factories of various kinds in Georgia. But 
when trade with the North was cut off, those already in 
existence were quite inadequate to the demands for war 
supplies, cannon, guns, ammunition of all kinds, cloth and 
clothing, and the multitude of manufactured articles that 
had long come into the South from Northern factories and 
shops. New cotton mills were not opened during the war, 
but those already equipped were run to their fullest capacity. 
Manufacturers were hindered by the scarcity of cards for 
carding cotton and other machinery for their plants. In 
1862 the state came to the rescue by advancing $100,000 
for the manufacture of woollen and cotton cards for fac- 
tories and for procuring machinery and materials for the 
manufacture of cards. 2 That there was no conspicuous in- 
crease in the number of cotton mills during the war seems 

1 Southern Confederacy, April 22, 1862. 

2 Acts of the General Assembly, 1862; Executive Order, February 
9, 1863. — Brown Scrap Books. 



ig RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ r g 

apparent from the census figures, showing 33 mills with 
85,186 spindles in operation in i860, and 34 mills with 
85,602 spindles in 1870. Woollen mills, of which 30 were 
listed in i860, increased in the following decade to 46. 1 

The greatest industrial growth occasioned directly by 
the war was in foundries, rolling mills and factories for 
making army supplies of all kinds, situated mostly in the 
inland towns, Macon, Atlanta, Athens, Augusta, and Colum- 
bus. These enterprises, more and more necessary to the 
security of the state and the Confederacy, were gradually 
impressed by one government or the other. In Macon more 
than 350 workmen were constantly employed in making 
cannon, shot, shell, saddle harness, and leather articles, while 
the laboratory and the armory kept as many more busy 
in the manufacture of smaller weapons and cartridges. In 
1862 the arsenal at Savannah was moved to Macon. Macon 
also had smaller establishments for the manufacture of but- 
tons, enamelled cloth, wire, matches, soap, and other neces- 
saries. 2 Columbus profited by unusual business activity. 
The city was filled with transient residents who found em- 
ployment in factories that worked night and day, employ- 
ing two sets of hands. Many laborers were kept busy at 
the Confederate Naval Works under military command. 
Some new industries sprang up in Columbus, such as a cap 
factory and a sword factory, and others were greatly stimu- 
lated. The Columbus Foundry and Machine Works had to 
increase its working force to meet the great demand for 
machinery and war supplies. Many women and girls, 

1 U. S. Census, i860, Manufactures, p, 82; 1870, vol. iii, pp. 4#8-9> 
508, 506-7, 630. The increase in woollen manufactures was in wool 
carding more than in the manufacture of woollen goods. 

3 Butler, Historical Record of Macon and Central Georgia, pp. 257-8; 
Von Halle, Baumwollprodnktion und Pilanzungswirtschaft in den 
Nordamerikanischen Siidstaaten, vol. ii, pp. 58-9. 



X o] INTRODUCTION— GEORGIA IN THE WAR jg 

mostly wives and daughters of soldiers, found employment 
in the quartermaster's establishment in Columbus. 1 At- 
lanta was one of the military supply depots of the Confed- 
eracy, where arms, ammunition, alcohol, vinegar, spirits of 
nitre and other necessaries were manufactured for the gov- 
ernment. The city was headquarters for the Confederate 
quartermaster and commissary, and as a chief hospital 
point, it gave employment to a large labor force and stimu- 
lated trade through large disbursements. Before 1861 its 
manufacturing interests were comparatively small, with 
four machine shops, two planing mills, three tanneries, two 
shoe factories, a soap factory and a clothing factory. Dur- 
ing the war its industry was increased by the special de- 
mands of the time, but after the evacuation by Sherman's 
army nearly all the factories were in ruin. During the war 
the Atlanta Machine Works, managed by a Unionist, J. L. 
Dunning, refused to cast shells for the Confederacy, where- 
upon the works were seized by the government. 2 Athens 
had three second-rate cotton mills of limited capacity, all 
of which flourished under the excessive demand for cloth 
and yarn. 3 

The dearth of coal, iron and other minerals, occasioned by 
the war, seemed to offer opportunity for good investment 
in mining in North Georgia, and between 1861 and 1863 at 
least eight different companies were incorporated by the 
state legislature to carry on mining operations in the north- 
ern counties. 4 But capital was too scarce to make such ven- 
tures immediately profitable and no important results came 
from any of these operations. 

1 Martin, Columbus, Georgia, pp. 142-3, 166. 

2 Clarke, Atlanta Illustrated, p. 41, et seq.; Reed, History of Atlanta, 
pp. 456, 458. 

3 Hull, Annals of Athens, p. 390. 

4 Acts of the General Assembly, 1861, 1862, 1863. 



2Q RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ 20 

Thus, the war greatly stimulated industrial enterprises in 
Georgia, but the most thriving industries were those of a 
temporary character, fostered by the special needs of war, 
only to subside as soon as peace returned. Many such fac- 
tories, too, were destroyed in 1864-5. Industrial activity 
served partially to offset agricultural depression when the 
cotton market was stagnant and helped in the readjustment 
of labor by giving occupation to women and girls, whose 
support was removed when husbands and fathers were in 
the army. Still another result of the industrial activity 
of this period, important later in the dominant interests of 
the state, was the formation of a new class of rich men 
whose wealth did not rest in land and slaves. 1 

Before the war, the great bulk of Georgia's exports, 
bound eventually for European markets, was shipped from 
Savannah, Brunswick, or Charleston, to Northern ports, 
and thence across the ocean. A very small per cent of the 
shipping from Savannah was bound for England direct. 
This commercial dependence on the North loomed up full 
of dangers in the fall of i860 when war was brewing, and 
plans were agitated for securing direct trade with Europe 
from Savannah, at first by private initiative, then by gov- 
ernmental sanction and aid. Governor Brown's annual mes- 
sage to the legislature in the fall of i860 called attention 
to the fact that the Cotton Planters' Association of the state, 
in making efforts to establish direct trade with Europe, 
had sent a commissioner to Europe. The governor recom- 
mended in aid of the enterprise a law like one in Alabama, 
to exempt from all state, county, and corporation taxes all 
goods from any foreign country imported directly into 
Georgia through any of the ports of the Southern states. 2 



1 Cf. infra, p. 118. 

2 lournal of the House of Representatives, i860, p. 23. 



2i ] INTRODUCTION— GEORGIA IN THE WAR 2 I 

No action seems to have been taken under this recommen- 
dation, but through the incorporation of the Belgian 
American Company, a further move was made for direct 
trade between the Southern states and Europe, the state 
guaranteeing for five years five per cent interest on the capi- 
tal stock ($100,000), and supervising the company by a 
commissioner appointed by the governor. 1 

For a short time after secession vessels from the North 
continued to come to Savannah with goods on which custom 
duties were collected. In the spring of 1862, when the fall 
of Fort Pulaski below Savannah closed that port, and other 
ports on the Georgia coast were effectually blockaded, com- 
mercial difficulties became very serious. 2 The state sent 
Mr. T. Butler King on a mission to Europe to try to carry 
into effect the act of December, i860, for the purpose of 
establishing direct intercourse with Europe. The Belgian 
American Company refused the terms offered, but the 
French government was more amenable, and changed in 
favor of Savannah, a subsidy previously granted a line to 
New York. In England a contract was made with Fred- 
erick Sabel, of Liverpool, for a direct line to Savannah on 
the payment of a subsidy of $100,000 as soon after peace 
as possible. This latter contract was not ratified, and in- 
deed the possible benefits of Mr. King's mission came to 
nought, for by the autumn of 1862 the Federal blockade of 
the Georgia coast was so effective that none but the most 
daring blockade runners could break through. 3 

The coast blockade, by severing connection with the 
North, shut out manufactured articles in general usage, as 
well as machinery of all sorts, cloth and clothing, fine gro- 

1 Acts of the General Assembly, i860, pp. 7-10. 

2 Wilson, Historical and Picturesque Savannah, p. 199. 

3 Southern Confederacy, December 4, 1862. 



22 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ 22 

ceries, medicines, and other articles of household consump- 
tion, at the same time shutting in the cotton that went to 
pay for these imported articles. Georgia's other avenue of 
approach to the outside world was by railroads to the 
North and the West, by which came a large part of the 
grain and meat supply of the state. In the winter of 1861 
food ran short, and in the next year, when Northern armies 
occupied Kentucky and part of Tennessee, conditions, al- 
ready serious, were aggravated by a failure of the corn crop 
in part of North Georgia. Moreover, in these first two 
years of the war planters did practically nothing toward ad- 
justing themselves to the situation by planting more grain 
and less cotton. In the short market speculation was rife. 
The legislature tried to control this abuse by enacting laws 
against monopoly and extortion, declaring it a misdemeanor 
with heavy fine as penalty to attempt to corner the market 
or artificially to raise prices in breadstuffs or other articles 
of general use and consumption. 1 Under such conditions 
mercantile business was at a standstill, many stores were 
closed or used as headquarters of various departments of 
the government. 2 Prices for all articles of ordinary con- 
sumption began to rise rapidly in December, i860, when 
banks suspended specie payments, and continued upward 
as the double effect of a scarcity of commodities and an in- 
flated currency. 

A salt famine early threatened the people of the state 
when the blockade stopped the importation of this very nec- 
essary commodity. So serious was the difficulty as the pack- 
ing season approached that the state legislature took meas- 
ures to provide salt. To encourage the manufacture of salt 

1 Acts of the General Assembly, 1861, pp. 66-7; Southern Confederacy, 
February 5, 1862. 

2 Hull, Annals of Athens, p. 257; Wilson, Historical and Picturesque 
Savannah, p. 201 ; and newspapers. 



23] INTRODUCTION— GEORGIA IN THE WAR 2 $ 

in Georgia, the legislature in 1861 appropriated $50,000 to 
be advanced as a loan without interest. 1 In 1862 the gov- 
ernor offered a reward for the discovery of salt wells in 
the state, and in December of that year a legislative appro- 
priation put $500,000 in the hands of the governor to pro- 
vide salt for the packing season. 2 The state entered into a 
partnership with the Planters' Salt Manufacturing Co. and 
the Georgia Salt Manufacturing Co. to manufacture salt in 
Washington and Smythe counties in Virginia, and the gov- 
ernor was authorized to impress cars and engines to trans- 
port the salt in the state. 3 

Georgia, prior to 1861, was ahead of the other Southeast- 
ern states in the completeness and efficiency of its trans- 
portation system. 4 The Western and Atlantic R. R., owned 
and operated by the state, brought food supplies from 
Tennessee, Kentucky and the West for distribution through 
the cotton belt, and the Georgia R. R. and the Central of 
Georgia R. R., together with branch feeding lines in the 
cotton region, carried cotton from the producing area to 
the sea-ports. The extent of these railway lines in Georgia 
is seen by the following table : 5 

1 Acts of the General Assembly, 1861, pp. 7-8. 

2 Southern Confederacy, April 6, 1862 (Proclamation of March 31st) ; 
Acts of the General Assembly, 1862, p. 6, et seq. 

8 Ibid., pp. 105, 108. 

* For a full and valuable account of the development of transporta- 
tion facilities in Georgia before the war, see Phillips, History of Trans- 
portation in the Eastern Cotton Belt to i860. 

5 Ibid, and Sherwood, Gazetteer of Georgia, i860, p. 6 et seq. 



24 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[24 



RAILROADS IN GEORGIA IN i860 



Georgia R. R. 
Branches: 



Western and Atlantic R. 
Branches: 



Central of Georgia R. 
Branches: 



R. 



Augusta to Atlanta 
Camak to Warrenton 
Cumming to Washington 
Union Point to Athens 

R. Atlanta to Chattanooga 

Dalton to Cleveland, Tenn. 
Kingston to Rome 

Macon to Savannah 
Millen to Waynesboro to 

Augusta 
Gordon to Milledgeville to 

Eatonton 



171 mi. 



138 mi. 



191 mi. 



Macon and Western R. R. 
Branch: 



Atlanta to Macon 
Barnesville to Thomaston 



Atlanta and West Point R. R. Atlanta to West Point 



103 mi. 



87 mi. 



Southwestern R. R. 
Branch: 

Muscogee R. R. 
Savannah and Gulf R. R. 



Macon to Eufaula, Ala. and 

to Albany 163 mi. 

Smithville to Fort Gaines and 

Georgetown 



Macon to Columbus 



100 mi. 



Savannah to Thomasville 
(completed in i860 as 
far as Valdosta) 150 mi. 



Other roads, chartered, surveyed, and partially con- 
structed before 1861, were held up during the war by lack 
of capital and were not completed until later. Of the 
Macon and Brunswick R. R., about fifty miles were built. 
The Air Line R. R., to connect Atlanta with the Northeast, 
chartered in 1856, was surveyed into South Carolina before 
1 86 1. Construction was delayed until 1868, and five years 
later the road was completed to Charlotte, N. C. The Bruns- 
wick and Albany was chartered, a part of the grading done 



25] INTRODUCTION— GEORGIA IN THE WAR 2 $ 

and some miles of track laid. Later, aided by state endorse- 
ment of its bonds, the road was finished as far as Albany. 1 
Between 1861 and 1865, practically no progress was 
made in railway extension further than the granting of 
charters to some new companies, the Ocmulgee River R. 
R. from Macon to Griffin, the Atlanta and Roswell R. R. 
to connect with the Western and Atlantic R. R., and the 
Columbia and Augusta R. R. 2 

The policy of Georgia toward railroads in the two decades 
before the war was one of active aid and encouragement, 
by subscribing to the stock of railroad companies and by 
favorable tax agreements. Not until 1850 was any state 
tax levied on railroad stock, and the companies chartered 
before that year were secured against a tax greater than 
one-half of one per cent on the net annual income. After 
1858 all roads were taxed alike at this rate. 3 In general, 
railroads prospered in the years just before the war. In 

1859, the dividend declared by the Georgia R. R. was 8 per 
cent; by the Macon and Western, 16 per cent; by the 
Central of Georgia, 20 per cent; 4 and in i860, under the 
efficient management of Governor Brown's regime, the state 
road paid into the treasury 10 per cent on the whole sum 
paid out by the state and raised by bonds. 5 

The invasion of Georgia by Sherman's army in 1864 
wrought terrible havoc on railroads. In the northern and 
central parts of the state the main lines of transportation 
were broken up for almost two years. Sherman's march 
of destruction followed the line of the Western and Atlan- 

1 Janes, Handbook of Georgia, pp. 173-6. 

1 Acts of the General Assembly, 1862, pp. 219-222; 1863-4, pp. 137-148. 

3 Report of the Comptroller General, i860, pp. 20-21. 

* Sherwood, Gazetteer of Georgia, i860, pp. 149-154. 

6 Governor Brown, Annual Message, i860, Journal of the House, 

1860, pp. 7-9. 



26 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[26 



tic R. R. from Chattanooga to Atlanta, part of the Macon 
and Western R. R. between Atlanta and Macon, and almost 
the entire length of the Central R. R. to Savannah. The 
left wing of the army did serious damage to the Georgia 
R. R. between Madison and Augusta, and also to the Au- 
gusta and Savannah R. R. The line of march was marked 
by " Sherman's hairpins ", i. e., rails torn up, heated over 
burning cross-ties, then bent around trees. Yard houses 
and road-buildings were burned, bridges torn away, and 
rolling stock carried off or destroyed. 1 The Atlanta and 
West Point R. R. suffered like treatment at the hands of 
General Wilson's raiders in 1865. The state road, the 
Western and Atlantic, had been the bone of contention be- 
tween the two armies, destroyed by each in turn. Later it 
was put in temporary running order by the Federal authori- 
ties, and in September, 1865, was turned over to the state, 
the United States government furnishing rolling stock, for 
which the state gave bond. 2 Thus, by the end of the war, 
the Western and Atlantic R. R., together with some por- 
tions of the Southwestern R. R. and of the Atlantic and 
Gulf R. R., constituted the usable parts of the transporta- 
tion system, though these roads, too, suffered heavily from 
loss of rolling stock. 

No kind of business suffered more heavily by reason of 
the failure of the war for secession than did banking. In 
i860, twenty-five banks were doing business in Georgia 
with an actual capital of $9,028,078. Of these, nine were 
in Savannah, the commercial capital of the state, six in Au- 
gusta, two each in Macon and Dalton, and the others in 
Columbus, Atlanta, Rome, Athens, La Grange, and Ring- 
Andrews, War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, pp. 47-8; Trow- 
bridge, Picture of the Desolated States, pp. 501-502; New York Times, 
October 13, 1865, and November 23, 1865. 

2 Acts of the General Assembly, 1866, pp. i4- T 5- 



27] INTRODUCTION— GEORGIA IN THE WAR 2 J 

gold. The State of Georgia was not encouraging in its 
policy toward banking corporations, taxing them 39^ cents 
on $100 capital stock paid in, about six times the rate paid 
by all other property, except railroads. 1 In the fall of 
i860, when threatening war put the banks under a severe 
strain, the legislature came to their relief by an act, passed 
over the governor's veto, legalizing the suspension of specie 
payments for one year, a privilege that was extended from 
time to time to the end of the war. 2 In a very short time 
after suspension, practically all coin disappeared from cir- 
culation, leaving a shortage in the currency in 1861. But 
by the following year there was a flood of paper money of 
all kinds, bank change bills in small denominations of 5, 10, 
25 and 50 cents, bank bills in larger amounts, change bills 
issued by the state road, state notes and bills, Confederate 
notes, city and town currency, as well as bills and notes of 
individuals and firms, called " shinplasters ", many of which 
had better credit than public currency. 3 During the war 
banks invested their funds largely in Confederate bonds 
and state securities, so that, at the close of the war, when 
the securities in their vaults were worthless, the banks were 
almost entirely wrecked. In 186 1, as a measure of relief to 
cotton planters, a bank was organized in Thomasville, 
known as the Cotton Planters' Bank of Georgia. Its pur- 
pose, as stated in the law of its incorporation, was to give 
steadiness to the value of cotton, to make it the basis of a 
circulating medium, and to enable the planters to control 
. their own cotton until the removal of the blockade. No one 
could hold stock except planters, who might subscribe in 

1 Report of the Comptroller General, i860, pp. 26, 27. 

5 Acts of the General Assembly, i860, p. 22; 1861, pp. 18-19, 25-7; 
1862, pp. 19-21. 

8 Ibid., 1862, pp. 19-21; Southern Confederacy, December 2, 1862. 



28 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[28 



cotton of their own raising at the rate of $30 per bale (500 
lbs.) of upland, and $45 per bale (300 lbs.) of sea-island 
cotton. 1 This was planned as an attempt to protect the 
planters from the grip of speculators. 

Georgia, under normal conditions, derived her income for 
running expenses from a general property tax, from special 
taxes on bank stock, railroads, lotteries, foreign insurance 
companies and foreign bank agents, and from the earnings 
of the state road. The assets of the state in i860 included 
taxable property assessed at more than $600,000,000, the 
valuable state-owned railroad, the Western and Atlantic, 
and stock in various banks and railroads amounting to' 
about $800,000. Over and against these assets was a 
public debt of $2,670,750 in bonds maturing between 1861 
and 1880. 2 During the first two years of the war, Georgia, 
like other states and like the Federal and the Confederate 
governments, showed unwillingness to meet war demands 
by increasing taxes, preferring the indirect method of bonds 
and paper currency. At the first session of the legislature 
after the war began, the state assumed the Confederate war 
tax, meeting the obligation by an issue of bonds; and the 
general appropriation bill of the same session authorized 
the governor to issue bonds or treasury notes to cover any 
shortage in the treasury for general appropriations. 3 The 
total debt in bonds incurred during the war was $3,308,500. 
In currency in the form of non-interest-bearing notes, treas- 
ury certificates of deposit and change bills, nearly fifteen 
millions were issued during the war, making a total indebt- 
edness in bonds and notes for war purposes of about $18,- 
000,000. 

1 Acts of the General Assembly, 1861, pp. 20-22. 

2 Report of the Comptroller General, i860, pp. 3, 4, 6, 11. 

3 Acts of the General Assembly, 1861, pp. 13, 79. 



29] 



INTRODUCTION— * 



GEORGIA IN THE WAR 



2 9 



State Debt, 1861-1865 1 

Bonds 

7%, bonds, issued under Act approved December n, 
1861, for payment of Confederate tax assumed by 

the state — due 1872 $2,441,000.00 

6%. bonds, for state defence — due 1881 25,000.00 

7% bonds, for state defence — due 1881 842,500.00 

These two sets of bonds were issued February, 1861 
and May, 1862, under Acts approved November 16, 
i860 and December 16, 1861. Interest at 6% was too 
low to make bonds salable, so rate was raised 
to 7%. 

Total in bonds $3,308,500.00 

Currency 

Non-interest-bearing treasury notes and treasury certi- 
ficates of deposit, payable in 8% bonds and specie 
six months after treaty of peace or when banks of 
Savannah and Augusta resume specie payment .... 3,758,000.00 

Treasury notes and treasury certificates of deposit, pay- 
able in specie or 6% bonds of the state six months 
after treaty of peace between the United States 
and the Confederate States 4,800,000.00 

Treasury notes, payable in Confederate treasury notes 
if presented within three months after maturity; 
otherwise not redeemable except in payment of 
public dues (outstanding in 1865) 5,171,500.00 

Change bills, payable only in Confederate treasury notes 

(outstanding in 1865) 997,775-85 



Total in currency $14,727,275.85 

Total war debt $18,035,775.85 



Direct taxes, as a means of supporting the extra demands 
of war, were not increased until the end of 1862, when 
the legislature widened the scope of the general property 
tax, declaring cotton, grain or other produce held for 
barter or sale on April 1st of each year, not belonging to 
the original producer, to be merchandise, and hence subject 

1 Report of the Comptroller General, 1865. pp. 11-18. 



30 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [30 

to taxation as other property. The amount of the general 
tax levied on property was fixed at $1,000,000 for 1862, 
and for 1863 at $1, 500,000. 1 The first income tax was 
instituted by the legislature in special session in April, 1863. 
In its earliest form it provided for a graduated tax on the 
net income or profits of 20 per cent or more from the sale 
of goods, wares, merchandise, groceries, and from the dis- 
tillation and sale of spirituous liquors. This was aimed 
primarily at speculation and excessive profits, but the aim 
seems not to have been well directed, for the comptroller 
general reported that the law produced misunderstanding, 
dodging, and fraudulent returns. In December of the same 
year, at the regular session of the legislature, the income 
tax was extended and changed in basis. Profits, instead of 
being taxed by the per cent of gain on capital, as in the 
April measure, were taxed at the specific amount of profit, 
and the rate was increased with the amount of profit. All 
profits over 8 per cent were taxed in the following scale : 2 

Less than $10,000, taxed at 5% 

10,000-15,000 " " 7 X /2% 

15,000-20,000 " " 10% 

20,000-30,000 " " i2 l / 2 % 

30,000-50,000 " " 15%, 

50,000-75,000 " " 17^/2% 

75,000-100,000 " " 20% 

over 100,000 " " 25% 

A slight change in the Tax Act of March n, 1865, freed 
profits of less than 10 per cent from any income tax. s Most 
of the tax collected under this item, $125,241.64 in 1863 
and $455,593.98 in 1864, came from the fifteen counties 

1 Acts of the General Assembly, 1861, p. 80; 1862-3, pp. 57, 50-60. 

3 Ibid., 1862-3 p. 176, et seq.] 1863-4, pp. 80, 81; Report of the Comp- 
troller General, 1863, pp. 28-31. 

* Acts of the General Assembly, 1864-5, p. 66. 



31 ] INTRODUCTION— GEORGIA IN THE WAR ?>l 

out of the total one hundred and thirty-two, where there 
were factories or large mercantile establishments. 1 The 
comptroller general, who disapproved of the income tax, 
felt sure that there was much dodging and estimated the 
returns as only one-fifth of the legitimate number. As 
against 69,712 property tax payers, only 3,758 persons paid 
any tax on income. 2 The assessment of the general tax for 
1864 and 1865 was left to the governor and the comptroller 
general, provided it did not exceed one per cent for all tax- 
able property estimated in Confederate currency for 1864, 
and one-half of one per cent for 1865. 3 In addition to 
these state-imposed taxes, each county, through the justices 
of the inferior court, issued bonds and levied extra taxes 
to equip volunteers and to support indigent families of sol- 
diers. In some counties the property of private soldiers 
was exempt from the extra county tax, and in others prop- 
erty less than $2,000 was exempt when the holder was in 
military service, and execution for default of taxes was de- 
layed in case of those serving in the army.* 

Popular opinion in Georgia supported the war with a 
fair degree of unanimity, though there was strong opposi- 
tion to secession in 1861, chiefly on the question of the ex- 
pediency of immediate state action as against co-operation 
with other Southern states. 5 After the beginning of hos- 
tilities the active Unionist element largely disappeared, fall- 

1 Report of the Comptroller General, 1863, p. 7; 1864, pp. 6, 30-31. 
1 Ibid., 1864, p. 30. 

3 Acts of the General Assembly, 1864-5, p. 18 and 1863-4, P- 79» Act 
of March 11, 1865, authorized additional tax of two-fifths of one per 
cent on property. Acts of the General Assembly, 1864-5, p. 69. 

4 Ibid., 1861, pp. 30, 76, 122, et seq. 

5 For the secession movement in Georgia, see Phillips, Georgia and 
State Rights, chs. vii and viii. 



32 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [32 

ing in line with the mass of individuals who " went with 
their state ". Though Unionists were still numerous in the 
upper counties, they were not a real political power and 
offered no appreciable obstacle to the general spirit of 
fighting to be free, which marked the early period of the 
war. 1 But during 1863 a spirit of querulous discontent 
with the Confederate administration developed strongly 
and widely. Georgia, through the action of her governor, 
presented the attitude of chronic objector, if not direct 
obstructionist, to* the chief measures of the government 
at Richmond. At times the tension between the executives 
of the state and of the Confederacy was extremely high, 
particularly over the questions of conscription, suspension 
of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, and con- 
trol of the state militia. Two> hostile groups were formed 
in the state, with Robert Toombs, Alexander Stephens and 
his brother, Linton, on the side of Governor Brown, up- 
holding the principle of state rights as against the extension 
of Confederate authority; while Howell Cobb, commander 
of the state troops, with H. V. Johnson and B. H. Hill, the 
two Confederate senators from Georgia, supported Jeffer- 
son Davis's policy. 2 The state legislature was generally 
more conservative in action than either of these two fac- 
tions, watching jealously the centralizing tendencies of the 
Confederate government, and yet lagging behind the im- 
patient hostility of the governor to Confederate policy. 
Military as well as political dissatisfaction was rife. De- 
sertion from the army became threatening. The mountains 
in North Georgia were so infested with bands of deserters 
and stragglers that Governor Brown issued a proclamation 

1 Rhodes, History of the United States since 1850, vol. v, p. 449. 

2 Johnston and Browne, Life of Alexander H. Stephens', New York 
Times, December 3, 1863, speech of Robert Toombs delivered in Atlanta. 



33] INTRODUCTION— GEORGIA IN THE WAR 33 

in January, 1863, ordering them to disperse and return to 
military service. 1 

The question then arises — Did this spirit of dissatisfac- 
tion and criticism mean a desire for peace and reunion? 
Discontent and a desire for reunion were not identical in 
the feelings of the people, though they tended to merge as 
time went on. The quarrelsome attitude of Georgia toward 
the Confederate power was, however, frequently misinter- 
preted by politicians and military commanders of the North, 
who regarded it as the presage of submission by independ- 
ent state action. A clearer reading of this disaffected state 
of mind is given in a letter written early in 1863 by Alex- 
ander Stephens, who was always keenly sensitive to the 
pulse of popular sentiment in Georgia. In this letter he 
writes : 

What do you suppose a Yankee paper would say over Gov- 
ernor Brown's proclamation about bands of traitors and tories 
in our State that require the military to put them down? 
Nothing of that sort has occurred in any part of the North 
yet; and we know, or ought to know, how little confidence is 
to be attached to it from what We see among ourselves. The 
great majority of the masses, both North and South, are true 
to the cause of their side, — no doubt about that. The great 
majority on both sides are tired of the war; want peace. I 
have no doubt about that. But as we do not want peace with- 
out independence, so they do not want peace without reunion. 
There is the difficulty. I think the war will break down in 
less than a twelvemonth; but I really do not see in that any 
prospect for peace, permanent peace. Peace founded upon 
a treaty recognizing our separate independence is not yet in 
sight of me. 2 

1 Oflicial Records of the War of the Rebellion, series iv, vol. ii, p. 360. 

2 Johnston and Browne, op. cit., p. 435, a letter written by Stephens 
to R. M. Johnston, January 29, 1863. See Peace Resolutions intro- 



34 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [34 

In 1863 the leading apostles of discontent were the most 
ardent advocates of war to the goal of independence, but in 
the next year military disasters and threatened invasion of 
Georgia brought evident signs of weakening, and talk of 
reunion spread there as elsewhere. The idea was not pro- 
mulgated as the tenet of any particular group or party, and 
the discussion was more by covert insinuation than by out- 
right appeal or propaganda. The newspapers give little 
direct evidence of change of heart. However, growing re- 
union sentiment is inferable from the very loudness of 
the editorial calls for good cheer and the insistence of pub- 
lic speakers on the principle that nothing short of inde- 
pendence should be tolerated, even in thought. 1 Evidence 
is too scant to conclude that disaffection in Georgia went so 
far as to lend itself to the organization of secret peace so- 
cieties, such as existed in North Carolina, Alabama, and 
elsewhere. Such societies may have existed along the Ala- 
bama border, but they seem to have played no decisive part 
in organizing a peace movement in Georgia. 2 The results 
of the gubernatorial election of 1863 throw some light on 
the extent of this peace feeling. The leading opponent to 
the re-election of Governor Brown was Joshua Hill, one of 
the strongest Union men in the state and one of the few 
leaders who had not gone with the state in sympathy after 
secession was voted. Mr. Hill's platform was a defence 

duced by Linton Stephens in the Georgia Legislature, approved March 
19, 1864. Acts of the General Assembly, 1864, p. 158; Waddell, Bio- 
graphical Sketch of Linton Stephens, pp. 271-4. 

1 Speech of A. H. Stephens at Charlottesville, Va., July, 1863. Moore, 
Rebellion Record, vol. vii, pp. 216-7; letter of Robt. Toombs to A. 
Bees of Americus, Ga., in New York Times, September 12, 1863; 
extract from a Macon newspaper of August, 1863 in Annual Cyclo- 
pedia, 1863, p. 448. 

1 Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, series i, vol. xxiv, 
pt. iii, p. 588; series iv, vol. iii, p. 393. 



35] INTRODUCTION— GEORGIA IN THE WAR 35 

of his Union policy in 1861 and a declaration of the futility 
of the war, while Governor Brown stood out against any- 
thing short of independence as the aim of the war. The 
outcome of the vote was the re-election of Governor Brown 
by a large majority, but the fact that the outright Unionist 
candidate carried more than one-fourth of the total vote 
cast shows that the people of Georgia in 1863 were by no 
means unanimous in wishing to push the war to the end of 
independence, dubious of achievement as it then seemed. 1 

In 1864 a more definite peace sentiment developed. After 
all expectation of foreign intervention had vanished, there 
appeared to be two means by which peace might be attained, 
directly by military success of the Confederate armies, and 
vicariously by the triumph of the Northern Democrats in 
the election of 1864. When the military victories of the 
Southern armies became infrequent and when lines of Fed- 
eral advance pushed farther and farther upon the soil of 
the Southern states, hope of peace by the first means was 
lost to all except the constitutionally sanguine. Then the 
Southerners who still clung to the idea of independence put 
their trust in the Northern Democratic party. The Demo- 
crats, however, did not promise to sanction the separation 
of the sections, but declared officially for restoration on the 
basis of the federal union of the states. 2 But whatever were 
the words of the platform, both South and North felt that 
the election of McClellan and Pendleton would mean that 
the vast body of people in the North were weary of the 
war to the point of abandoning the attempt to whip the re- 
calcitrants into submission. This regard for political con- 
ditions in the North and the hope for the overthrow of the 
Lincoln government played an important part in determin- 

1 Annual Cyclopedia, 1863, pp. 447-8. 

2 Platform of the Democratic Party in McPherson, Political History 
of the Great Rebellion, p. 419. 



36 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [36 

ing the character of the peace feeling in Georgia in 1864. 1 
By September, however, it became evident that no depend- 
ence could be placed on the success of the Northern Demo- 
crats. At the same time came a far more potent factor 
in developing the desire to end it all. The march of Sher- 
man's army through Northwest Georgia, culminating in 
the fall of Atlanta, weakened the courage of the most stout 
hearted. The path of desolation which Sherman left be- 
hind him was a most terrifying threat to the rest of Georgia. 
It was no wonder that many began to cower and murmur 
peace in less exacting terms. The capture of Atlanta by the 
Federal army had a strongly depressing effect in the state 
and reunion talk was less disguised. Appeals were made 
to A. H. Stephens and H. V. Johnson for their views as to 
the propriety of attempting a peace movement, but both ad- 
vised against it. While they were eager for peace, neither 
was disposed to head a movement toward independent state 
action. 2 

The critical point in the direction of the reconstruction 
sentiment came after General Sherman's occupation of At- 
lanta. Sherman thought that by playing upon the discord- 
ant feelings in Georgia toward the Confederate govern- 
ment, and by pointing a menacing ringer toward the line of 
ruin from Chattanooga to Atlanta as a threat of what 
awaited the rest of the state, he might lure Georgia away 
from her confederate states. He wrote in a letter to Lin- 
coln, September 17, 1864: "It would be a magnificent 
stroke of policy if we could, without surrendering principle 
or a foot of ground, arouse the latent enmity of Georgia 

1 Avery, History of the State of Georgia, p. 314; Reed, History of 
Atlanta, p. 174; letter of H. V. Johnson in New York Times, October 
22, 1864. 

2 Avery, op. ext., p. 286; Rhodes, History of the United States, 1850- 
1877, vol. v, p. 65. 



37] INTRODUCTION— GEORGIA IN THE WAR 37 

against Davis." 1 Using Joshua Hill and William King, 
prominent Unionists, as intermediaries, Sherman invited 
Alexander Stephens and Governor Brown to an interview 
in Atlanta, suggesting that the state would be spared if the 
Georgia troops were recalled from the Confederate armies. 2 
Stephens and Brown both refused to meet General Sher- 
man, on the ground that neither he nor they had competent 
authority to settle such a matter. But before indicating his 
rejection of Sherman's proposition, Governor Brown called 
a special session of the legislature, and issued an order de- 
claring a thirty-day furlough for the state militia under 
General Hood's command near Atlanta. This summons of 
an extra session of the legislature was not in itself a sign 
of weakening, for the extraordinary conditions arising 
from the pressure of an invading army might necessitate 
the meeting of the assembly. But the Governor's recall of 
the militia and the grant of a furlough are inexplicable un- 
less they be taken as preliminary moves toward peace. His 
own explanation is entirely unconvincing, that the state 
troops, turned over to General Hood for the defence of 
Atlanta, were needed at their homes which they had left 
without preparation. So ran the Governor's order of Sep- 
tember ioth. 3 Just eight days after the fall of Atlanta, 
when the enemy might at any moment march in any direc- 
tion to spread the destruction that marked its path to At- 
lanta, the state troops were sent home to gather sorghum ! 
It seems probable that could Governor Brown have pro- 
ceeded on his own responsibility, he would have acted fav- 
orably toward the proposition made by General Sherman. 
He had a rare facility for divining on which side of the 

1 Sherman, Memoirs, vol. ii, p. 139. 

2 Ibid., pp. 137-8; Johnston and Browne, op. cit., pp. 471-2. 

3 New York Times, September 25, 1864. 



3» 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[38 



bread the butter is spread, and to a mind such as his, less 
controlled than most by sentimental or ideal impulses, it 
must have been clear that the war was hopeless, a cheerless 
end not far off, and that a voluntary submission on the part 
of Georgia when the chance was given, instead of forced 
subjugation some weeks or months later, would save the 
state untold suffering in loss of life and property. But at 
the same time, the natural shrewdness of the Governor, 
sharpened by long political practice, made him see that the 
people of Georgia were not ready for such action as his 
own practical wisdom and regard for material consequences 
might dictate. 

While weariness and discouragement with the war were 
increasing daily, there was strong objection to treating 
with an invading enemy, and stronger and more extensive 
still was the feeling that, whatever happened, the seceded 
states must stick together. This sentiment was voiced in 
Governor Brown's public note on the Sherman matter : 

The fact must not be overlooked, however, that while Georgia 
possesses the sovereign power to act separately, her faith, 
which never has, and I trust, never will be violated, is pledged 
by strong implication to her Southern sisters, that she will not 
exercise this power without consent on their part, and concert 
of action with them. 

Clear and direct as this statement is, the effect was ren- 
dered rather equivocal by the closing paragraph of the same 
letter : 

If those on both sides who have the constitutional power of 
negotiation, from obstinacy or ambition, refuse to recognize 
the sovereignty of the states, and to leave the settlement of 
the question to the states when they cannot themselves agree 
and insist on continual effusion of blood to gratify their 
caprice, all the states, North and South, in their sovereign 



39] INTRODUCTION— GEORGIA IN THE WAR 39 

capacity, may then be justifiable in taking the matter in their 
own hands and settling it as sovereigns in their own way. 1 

In the middle of November the Federal army abandoned 
the ruined city of Atlanta and set out to " make Georgia 
howl as Sherman aptly stated the purpose of his march 
to the sea. The fate that awaited Georgia was not imme- 
diately appreciated. Many people thought, as did the mili- 
tary authorities at Washington, that Sherman was march- 
ing into a cul-de-sac and would be entrapped long before 
he reached the coast. But after Savannah had fallen late in 
December, affairs wore a different aspect. There was little 
question then about the fate of Georgia. Sufficient answer 
lay in the path, three hundred miles long and forty miles 
wide, of smoking ruins and trampled fields. The year 1865 
dawned with little encouragement, except the certainty that 
the end was near. Some wished to hasten the end by call- 
ing a state convention, but others were unwilling to do any- 
thing to meet submission half way. The surrender in April 
brought the end which many greeted with the sense of re- 
lief that at least the worst had come. 

Developing out of the despondency produced by the mili- 
tary disasters of 1863, helped on by the disaffection of the 
Georgia government toward the Confederate administra- 
tion, and precipitated by the direful experience of Sher- 
man's march, there existed in Georgia before the end of the 
war a strong trend toward reunion, a willingness to aban- 
don the attempt to establish the independence of the se- 
ceded states. This readiness for submission implied no 
more than a return to the Union as it was, changed in nature 
only by the elimination of slavery. From lack of organi- 
zation, and from the absence of declared leaders and a fixed 

1 New York Times, October 8, 1864, from the Milledgeville Con- 
federate Union; Fielder, Life and Times of loseph E. Brown, p. 311. 



4 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [40 

purpose to achieve a definite end, the peace feeling in 
Georgia before the surrender was more in the nature of a 
reunion sentiment than an actual movement towards recon- 
struction. 

In April, 1865, when resistance to the Union ceased in 
Georgia with the news of General Johnston's surrender to 
General Sherman in North Carolina, the war left Georgia 
poorer by the loss of 40,000 of its white population, and 
burdened it with a serious labor problem, on the solution 
of which the whole agricultural, and hence, chief economic 
interest of the state depended. If her half million of blacks 
continued to work in the fields as before, then her people 
would be none the worse off and the estimated value of 
slave holdings would not be reckoned as loss, but merely 
transferred to enhance the value of land. 1 But if freedom 
to the negro meant freedom from work, then land would 
be worthless and Georgia itself would be ruined. In the 
spring of 1865, lands in the rich southwest region were 
untouched by the hand of the enemy, but across the middle 
of the state, from the northwest corner to' Savannah, lay a 
land of waste thirty or forty miles broad. In this region 
destruction involved not only stores of cotton and food 
supplies and growing crops, but the annihilation of all im- 
plements and means with which to make a new crop. 
Fences and barns were burned and live stock carried away. 
For the soldier or refugee returning to the Sherman belt, 
nothing was left but the mild climate and an occasional 
well of water which the Yankees had been unable to de- 
molish or appropriate. 2 Northeast Georgia, though not in- 

1 Report of the Comptroller General, i860, p. 6; taxable value of land 
in i860, $161,764,955; of slaves, $302,694,855. 

2 For destruction wrought by Sherman's march, see Moore, Rebellion 
Record, vol. ix, p. 7 ; New York Times, October 14, November 23, 1865 ; 



4 i ] INTRODUCTION— GEORGIA IN THE WAR 4I 

vaded, was desolate and poverty-stricken, and just at the 
end of the war in April, 1865, Wilson's raiders burned cot- 
ton, warehouses and factories in the west and central part 
of the state, at West Point, Columbus, Griffin, and Macon. 
The destructive work of a hostile army disrupted the main 
lines of railway, destroying the chief means of transporta- 
tion to the coast. Banks were thoroughly ruined and capi- 
tal vanished. The state was eighteen million dollars in 
debt, with assets short in the weakened condition of its in- 
come-producing property, the Western and Atlantic R. R., 
and the taxable property of its citizens already burdened 
beyond the last point of endurance by war taxes and uncer- 
tain income. 

In all this disaster, the people of Georgia felt relief that 
the end had come at last, but doubt and uncertainty for 
what the future might bring. In general, there was a will- 
ingness to return to the Union, even though the abandon- 
ment of slavery should be the price exacted for reunion. 
That reconstruction would enforce more than such a re- 
union was not foreseen. 

Avery, History of the State of Georgia, p. 306; Annual Cyclopedia, 
1864, p. 407; 1865, pp. 392-3; Wilson, Historic and Picturesque 
Savannah, p. 203; Andrews, War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 
pp. 32-4; Reed, History of Atlanta, p. 194; newspaper clippings in 
Brown Scrap Books. 



< 



CHAPTER II 



Transition from Slavery to Freedom 

The problems of peace were far more difficult and in- 
tricate than were those of war, and in 1865 when hostili- 
ties ceased, instead of the worst having passed, as the people 
of the South thought, the worst had only just begun in the 
region subject to reconstruction. Of all the problems be- 
fore the South and the Nation, the foremost, not yet com- 
pletely solved after fifty years, were the adaptation of the 
slave-driven negro to free labor, the adjustment of the land 
and planting system to new conditions, and the settlement 
of social relations between the two races living side by side 
when the old bond of master and slave was destroyed. 
These economic and social problems were complicated by 
political difficulties, the relation of the rebel state to the 
Union, the constitution of political citizenship in the state, 
and the struggle for party domination. In attempting 
to solve these problems, the process of reconstruction in 
Georgia, as in every other Southern state, was worked out 
through two revolutions. In 1865, the abolition of slavery 
overthrew the whole ante-bellum economy of Georgia; and 
since Georgia was primarily an agricultural state, a change 
in the labor system meant nothing less than a far-reaching 
economic revolution. In 1867, when the radicals in Con- 
gress undertook to make over the conquered provinces, the 
political enfranchisement of the former slaves induced a 
second revolution, fundamentally political and social in 
character. 

42 [42 



43 ] TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM 43 

The half-million negroes in Georgia were not actually 
free until the end of the war, for the Emancipation Procla- 
mation had no effect except in a limited region. In districts 
not penetrated by the Federal armies agricultural labor con- 
tinued during the war as under normal conditions. But 
wherever the army appeared negroes left the plough in the 
field to follow the soldiers to freedom. The path traversed 
by Sherman's army was not through the region where 
blacks were most numerous, hence disorganization of labor 
was not general until the summer of 1865, when military 
posts were established. To the negro, freedom meant all 
that slavery had not been. Slavery signified work, gener- 
ally in the field, labor under constant supervision, restriction 
in habitat, and subjection to patrol. Therefore, if freedom 
meant anything at all it must be idleness, roving from place 
to place, flocking into towns, and doing generally as pleas- 
ure dictated. 1 Vagrancy and loafing, natural reactions 
when the restraint of slavery was removed, were fostered 
among the negroes by the belief, as tenacious as their cer- 
tainty of judgment day, that at Christmas time the white 
folks' lands would be divided and every negro would have 
his share, commonly estimated at forty acres and a mule. 3 

The negroes, especially as they came in contact with the 
soldiers of the garrisons and the agents of the Freedmen's 
Bureau, had some understanding that the war had been 
fought for the negro against the white man, and as out- 
come, what had been the property of the master would be 
turned over to his slaves. When the negroes were told by 
their masters or by Federal agents or by general rumor that 

1 Mr. Fleming's account of the negro testing his freedom in Alabama 
is substantially true for Georgia as well. Fleming, Civil War and 
Reconstruction in Alabama, p. 269, et seq. 

* New York Times, October 14 and 24, 1865 (correspondent writing 
under the pseudonym, "Quondam"); Milledgeville Federal Union, 
July 18, 1865; Hull, Annals of Athens, p. 303. 



44 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[44 



they were free, the most general and immediate response 
to the news was to pick up and leave the home place to go 
somewhere else, preferably to a town. The lure of the 
city was strong to the blacks, appealing to their social 
natures, to their inherent love for a crowd. 

The first and only means by which the negroes could test 
their freedom was migration, to go where they were not. 
They put into practice the cynic's moral, " There's no place 
like home — thank God ! " With no sense of foresight, but 
in simple trust that freedom must be good, there were 
thousands of negroes, who, as Sidney Andrews remarked, 
" had clearly let go the bird in hand without any prospect 
of finding 'even one in the bush ". 1 In the black belt of 
Georgia, where slavery was as little burdensome to the 
negro as anywhere in the South, multitudes of negroes were 
on the march, leaving comfort and security in joyful quest 
of the unknown. Starve or steal they must before the 
winter was over, for work they would not. On the out- 
skirts of almost every town there were throngs of these 
wanderers huddled together in rude huts or with no shelter 
at all. In one such wretched hovel in Macon, Andrews 
found eleven negroes. With one of the men he had the 
following conversation : 2 

" Well, Uncle," said I, after he had told me that he was 
raised near Knoxville, some thirty miles away, — " well, Uncle, 
what did you come up to the city for? Why didn't you stay 
on the old place? Didn't you have a kind master?" 

" I's had a berry good master, mass'r," he said, " but ye see 
Fs wanted to be free man." 

" But you were just as free there as you are here." 

" P'r'aps I is, but Fs make a livin' up yer, I dun reckon ; an' 

1 Andrews, The South since the War, p. 349. 

2 Ibid., pp. 350-35L 



TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM 



45 



I likes ter be free man whar I can go an' cum, an' nobody 
says not'ing." 

" But you would have been more comfortable on the old 
place : you would have had plenty to eat and plenty of clothes 
to wear." 

" Ye see, mass'r, de good Lo'd he know what's de best t'ing 
fur de brack, well as fur de w'ite; an' He say ter we dat we 
should cum up yer, an' I don't reckon He let we starve." 

The very essence of the negro's Wanderlust was ex- 
pressed in the reply of an old darky, who was asked why 
she left the old place: " What fur? Joy my freedom! " 1 
Hence, by the fall of 1865, when cotton-picking time came, 
a large majority of the freedmen had left their former mas- 
ters. Thousands of able-bodied negroes were living in in- 
dolence, getting a living by picking and stealing from unpro- 
tected corn-fields and hen-roosts; and hundreds more aged 
and infirm and children were cared for by the Freedmen's 
Bureau. 2 Thus, in the summer and fall of 1865, vagabond- 
age was the general condition of the freedmen. Plantations 
suffered from the loss of labor, from their depredations on 
the crops, while towns were overwhelmed with throngs of 
idle blacks that crowded everywhere. 3 Newspapers re- 
ported that most of the offenders brought before the pro- 
vost courts in towns were negroes, accused of stealing, 
quarreling, and disturbing the peace generally. 4 The Au- 
gusta Constitutionalist urged the need of turning to the 
military authorities for protection against vagrants, and 
suggested as a remedy that the commander of the post re- 

1 Andrews, op. ext., p. 353. 

2 B. C. Truman said that about one-third of the slaves were with 
their former masters. New York Times, November 23, 1865. 

3 Andrews, War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, p. 253, and news- 
papers. 

* Macon Telegraph, December 1 and 30, 1865, and other papers. 



4 6 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ 4 6 

quire all negroes coming into the city to register, allow 
them reasonable time to secure work, and then send all 
those still idle to> plantations on the coast or hire them for 
work on the railroads. 1 In Athens in one week one hun- 
dred and fifty negroes were arrested for theft. The prob- 
lem of punishment was a trying one for provost marshals, 
some of whom devised odd penalties, such as tying the of- 
fender by his thumbs on tiptoe, or shaving off one-half of 
his head, or putting him in a barrel with armholes and 
labeled- — " I am a thief ". 2 Somewhat later, judges of the 
Freedmen's Court in Savannah punished freedmen by mak- 
ing them work in the chaingang on the streets, each one 
bearing a placard stating his crime. 3 

Idleness and vagrancy brought to the freedmen much suf- 
fering and hardship from which slavery had protected them. 
As valuable property, slaves were well fed and comfortably 
housed, but as free persons, many of them abandoned all 
comforts, satisfied because they were free. The rate of 
mortality among the blacks in the latter part of 1865 was 
frightfully high, and especially in towns, where pressure 
for existence was heaviest, they suffered greatly from star- 
vation and disease. In Macon, for instance, during De- 
cember, about five hundred negroes died, whereas ordi- 
narily the death rate was only about forty a month.* With 
soldiers returning from the armies and negroes wander- 
ing without restraint, smallpox spread widely during the 
latter part of 1865 and was responsible for many deaths 
among the blacks. 

1 Macon Telegraph, May 24 and June 1, 1865. 
'Hull, Annals of Athens, p. 303. 
3 Macon Telegraph, January 13, 1866. 

* New York Times, December 31, 1865, from Macon Telegraph and 
Augusta Constitutionalist ; Joint Committee on Reconstruction, pt. iii, 
p. 173 (Test.: Sidney Andrews). 



47 ] TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM 47 

One of the difficulties in the transition from slavery to 
freedom was the care of the dependent classes among the 
freedmen, the aged, helpless and young children. Some of 
these were supported by the Freedmen's Bureau, and many 
more, who remained in their old homes, were looked after 
by their former masters as they had always been. It was 
probably a rare case for a former slave-holder to turn out 
the old darkies or the sick, and, if he had any means of 
subsistence whatever, he willingly cared for those who had 
been dependent on him. 1 But it was a different matter 
when the charity given freely was demanded as an obliga- 
tion by the Freedmen's Bureau. General Tillson directed 
that the Bureau was not to remove the helpless and the 
aged freedmen and young children from the homes of their 
masters: dependent adults should be supported by their 
sons or daughters, if they had any, or by former masters 
until the state should make provision for them; if chil- 
dren were not supported the agent should try to bind them 
out. 2 Newspapers, in commenting on this order, said that 
no case had been heard of where a master had refused to 
care for the helpless among his former slaves. " We won- 
der," said the Columbus Enquirer, " how many such ex- 
amples there are at the North — how many poor Irish or 
German ' helps ' are provided for in their old age by former 
employers who for a score of years had the benefit of their 
faithful service when able to work." 3 The following ob- 
servation of the Milled geville Union on General Tillson's 
order was thoroughly sound in principle : 

1 B. C. Truman observed that in the whole state the Freedmen's 
Bureau had only about 1000 paupers, because generally the aged and 
young were cared for by their former masters. New York Times, 
December 5, 1865. 

2 Asst. Commissioner Tillson, Circular no. 5, in Milledgeville Federal 
Union, January 9, 1866. 

■ Quoted in Milledgeville Federal Union, January 9, 1866. 



48 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[48 



The plantation economy was an integral system, all parts of 
which were necessary to sustain it. When the government 
took away the effective working force, it knocked away the 
prop that upheld the whole system; it withdrew the effective 
workers, and with them the means by which the owner was 
enabled to provide for those who could not provide for them- 
selves. 1 

And another comment on the order was : 

The law which freed the negro, at the same time freed the 
master. At the same moment, and for both parties, all obli- 
gations springing out of the relation of master and slave, ex- 
cept those of kindness, ceased mutually to exist. If any officer 
can make the master support the old and infirm slave, he can 
also make the slave continue under and support the old and 
infirm master. 2 

Under these conditions the great troublesome question of 
the day, discussed in newspaper editorials and talked over 
wherever planters met together, was — What is to be done 
with the negro ? On this point the Southern Cultivator ob- 
served : 

Our servants are giving us not a little trouble, nowadays. Poor, 
misguided creatures ! who imagine that " freedom " consists 
in no work, plenty to eat, and going where they please ! . . . . 
The whole question of our future agricultural labor is one of 
the deepest import to every landholder and resident of the 
South ; and deserves the calmest consideration of the wisest, 
best, and most experienced men of our country. 3 

It was agreed that some action must be taken to prevent a 
large part of the negro population from lapsing into per- 

1 Milled geville Federal Union, January 9, 1866. 

2 Southern Cultivator, July, 1865. 
* June 1, 1865. 



4 o] TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM 

manent vagabondage, and from the experience of the first 
few months of the negroes testing their freedom, the only 
possible method, apparently, was by some scheme of com- 
pulsory labor. Various suggestions for labor control were 
made. The editor of the Savannah Herald urged the ap- 
pointment of officers in every militia district to supervise 
labor. 1 In most of the Southern states laws to control 
vagrancy in the Black Codes made some approach to com- 
pulsory labor. But in the meantime, the military authori- 
ties, as guardians of the black wards of the government, 
before the Freedmen's Bureau was thoroughly established 
in the state, were active in attempts to make the negroes 
work. Some parts of Georgia were fortunate in having offi- 
cers at the posts who were energetic in trying to adjust 
labor difficulties and settle the negroes at work. In Mill- 
edgeville, for instance, blacks could not enjoy ease without 
labor, for the military officer there put vagrants to work on 
the streets without compensation. 2 Military orders in some 
places forbade negroes to go from one plantation to an- 
other without passes, and provided for daily inspection of 
negro cabins to stop the stealing and killing of stock. To 
prevent plundering on the plantations, trading with negroes 
from the country was prohibited. All blacks had to have 
written permits from their masters to sell things, and the 
commander of the post at Milledgeville ordered, " Freed- 
men that will use any disrespectful language to their former 
masters will surely be punished." Runaways who broke 
labor contracts and those who harbored runaways were ar- 
rested. 3 On June 26, 1865, General Molineux, in Augusta, 
issued strict regulations to control vagrancy. Passes were 

1 January 3, 1866. 

s Milledgeville Federal Union, October 17, 1865. 

3 The above orders are mentioned in Avery, History of the State of 
Georgia, p. 343. 



50 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [50 

required from all persons out after nine o'clock. 1 Such re- 
strictions on the freedmen, made by their national pro- 
tectors, went further toward re-establishing the old slav- 
ery in some respects than even the severest of the Black 
Codes. 

When General Tillson took charge as Assistant Commis- 
sioner of the Freedmen's Bureau in Georgia, he started en- 
ergetically to improve the condition of the blacks by mak- 
ing them earn their living. In his order of October 3, 
1865, he gave the following commands to his agents : to get 
work for unemployed negroes so as to prevent death and 
starvation in the approaching winter; to refuse rations to 
able-bodied negroes for whom work could be found; to 
disabuse the negroes of the false impression about the dis- 
tribution of lands at Christmas; to help and not to inter- 
fere with the fulfilment of contracts already made, whether 
written or verbal; and to see that contracts for 1866 be 
written in a set form and duly registered by the superin- 
tendent of the district. 2 But nothing, not even the Bureau, 
could induce the freedmen to settle down to work, and 
planters were able to make very few contracts in the sum- 
mer and fall when the negroes were filled with expecta- 
tions of the distribution of land and other good things at 
Christmas time. 

Rumors were current among the whites that a general in- 
surrection was being planned by the negroes at Christmas 
and newspapers in various sections warned the people to 
make ready to protect themselves. There is no evidence 
that the Christmas uprising was anything more than mere 
rumor, a bogey to which the nervous and uncertain state 
of mind of the white people gave reality. But true or false 

1 Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, vol. xlvii, pt. iii, p. 665. 

2 Milledgeville Federal Union, January 9, 1866. 



cj!] TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM $i 

as rumors might prove, the white people took precautions 
against what the season might bring forth. In the country 
districts militia was organized to picket roads and patrol 
the country. During the last week of 1865 a number of 
negroes were killed and other outrages were reported. 1 But 
probably the disorder was not much greater than was usual 
at that season of the year. In towns Christmas passed 
more quietly than was expected. In Milledgeville, for in- 
stance, fewer negroes appeared than at Christmas time be- 
fore and had less money to spend. 2 In Macon the rollick- 
ing, jovial negro of Christmas time was no longer seen. 
One good old negro, looking back to the palmy days of the 
past, said to a white friend : " Ah, Masser, niggers were 
niggers in dem days. Den dey enjoyed demselves and had 
somebody to take care of em. Now dey is just vagabonds 
— all gwine to de debil together." 3 

At any rate, the holiday season passed without undue 
disorder and after the beginning of the new year negroes 
began to look around for jobs and made contracts for 1866. 
Doubtless the determined order of General Tillson on De- 
cember 22d greatly influenced them towards facing the 
necessity of work. One section of the order was as fol- 
lows : 4 

Freed people have the right to select their own employers ; but 
if they continue to neglect or refuse to make contracts, then, 
on and after January 15th, 1866, officers and agents of the 
Bureau will have the right, and it shall be their duty, to make 
contracts for them, in all cases where employers offer good 

1 The Nation, February 1, 1866 (contributed articles by J. R. Dennett 
on "The South as It Is"). 

2 Milledgeville Federal Union, January 2, 1S66. 

3 Macon Journal and Messenger, December 31, 1865. 

4 Milledgeville Federal Union, January 9, 1866. 



52 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [e 2 

wages and kind treatment, unless the freed people belong to 
the class above excepted [those who have sufficient property to 
support themselves and their families without contracting to 
labor], or can show that they can obtain better terms. Con- 
tracts so made shall be as binding on both parties as though 
made with the full consent of the freed people. 

In the early aftermath of emancipation most planters 
looked with despair upon the future of agriculture with free 
labor. Freedom and labor were considered incompatible 
in the negro. All the characteristics of the negro slave, as 
his owner knew him, were believed to be inherently racial, 
rather than adventitious, the product of slavery. " The 
negro won't work." " Cotton can never be raised w T ith free 
labor." " Niggers won't work and everything is going to 
ruin." These opinions were heard on all sides in the sum- 
mer and fall of 1865. Slavery was considered the natural 
and best condition for the negro. The point of view ex- 
pressed in the following letter, written by Howell Cobb to 
General J. H. Wilson, echoed the opinion of the great mass 
of Southern people : 1 

By the abolition of slavery — which either has been — or soon 
will be accomplished, a state of things has been produced, well 
calculated to excite the most serious apprehensions with the 
people of the South. I regard the result as unfortunate both 
for the white and the black. The institution of slavery, in my 
judgment, provided the best system of labor that could be 
devised for the negro race. But that has passed away, and it 
will tax the ability of the best and wisest statesmen to provide 
a substitute for it. It is due both to the white population and 
the negroes that the present state of things should not remain. 
You will find that our people are fully prepared to conform to 

1 Letter dated from Macon, June 14, 1865. In Johnson MSS. in 
the Library of Congress. This letter has been published in Fleming, 
Documentary History of Reconstruction, vol. i, pp. 128-131. 



53] TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM -3 

the new state of things ; — and as a general rule will be disposed 
to pursue towards the negroes, a course dictated by humanity 
and kindness. I take it for granted, that the future relations, 
between the negroes and their former owners, like all other 
questions of domestic policy, will be under the control and 
direction of the State governments. 

In commenting on Cobb's letter, General Wilson made 
this statement as to the attitude of the people of Georgia 
toward slavery : 1 

The people express an external submission to its Abolition, 
but there is an evident desire on the part of some to get the 
matter within their own control, after the re-organization of 
the State. Others are anxious to substitute a gradual system 
of emancipation, or a modified condition of Slavery, similar 
to Peonage, and still others seem to doubt that the President's 
proclamation of freedom, and the laws of Congress have been 
final in disposing of the Slavery question. There must be 
no hesitation on any of these points either by military or civil 
authorities. The whole system of Slavery and slave labor 
must be effectually destroyed, and the Freedmen protected 
from the injustice of evil men, before the people of Georgia 
get the State Government under their own control. If a 
single particle of life is left in the institution, or the original 
guardians of it are allowed any influence in the reorganization 
of the State, they will resuscitate and perpetuate its iniquities 
if possible. 

Some years later many of the slave-owning class came 
to think that emancipation was good for the master, what- 
ever it might be for the slave; that it relieved the white 
man of a heavy responsibility. But in 1865 this opinion 
was shared by only a few slaveholders. Joseph LeConte, 



1 Letter of Bvt. Maj. Gen. J. H. Wilson to Brig. Gen. W. D. Whipple, 
from Macon, Ga., June 15, 1865. Johnson MSS. 



54 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [54 

who owned a large plantation in Liberty County, went even 
further and declared, to the astonishment of his friends, 
that emancipation entailed no real loss; that the exchange 
from the slave to a wage system, if labor remained reliable, 
would simply transfer the value of slaves to the value of 
land. 1 Few, likewise, were the slave owners who faced the 
new order of things with an open mind. Alexander H. 
Stephens was one of this class, who, as far as his own ne- 
groes were concerned, was glad to try the experiment, to see 
what could be done for them under the new conditions. As 
he wrote to President Johnson from Fort Warren, where 
he was imprisoned, in June, 1865 : 2 " Slavery has been com- 
pletely abolished. If any other system or measure can be 
devised for the better amelioration of the condition of the 
colored portion of our population, consistent with the best 
interests of both races, then I shall be content." In 1866, 
when Stephens was called before the Reconstruction Com- 
mittee of Congress, he stated that relations between the 
whites and the blacks in Georgia were as good as the rela- 
tions between employers and employees elsewhere, much 
better than in the previous fall when negroes were idle, re- 
fusing to make contracts in the expectation that the con- 
vention would distribute land among them at Christmas. 3 

In fact, the whole tone of comment on the labor situa- 
tion changed completely in the early months of 1866. Des- 
pair gave place to hopefulness as the blacks made agree- 
ments to work and settled down on the plantations. As the 
Augusta Chronicle observed, General Tillson's order was 
having good effect, and consequently planters were feeling 
more encouraged than a few weeks previous. The real test 

1 LeConte, Autobiography, pp. 232-3. 

8 Avary (ed.), Recollections of Alex. H. Stephens, p. 201. 

8 Joint Committee on Reconstruction, 1866, pt. iii, p. 160. 



55] TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM 55 

would come in the summer and early fall. Patience and 
forbearance were necessary. The result would probably be 
mixed, however, with some failures and other successes 
under the new system of labor. 1 The Milledgeville Federal 
Union reported that in Baldwin County most of the ne- 
groes had gone to work though a score or more were still 
hanging around the sunny corners in town. The editor 
gave his opinion that the negroes should be taught that they 
must work, and that even being a " preacher " should not 
save a negro from a bad name if he didn't work. 2 In the 
Macon region negroes pretty generally contracted and went 
to work, but even then only about a third of a crop was ex- 
pected. Delay was caused in some places where agents of 
the Freedmen's Bureau insisted that contracts be submitted 
to them. 3 In Talbot and Jefferson and other counties of 
Central Georgia, negro men settled to work early in Janu- 
ary, but there, as elsewhere, difficulties were found in get- 
ting negro women to go back to their ante-bellum duties. 4 
Reports from South Georgia, from Thomas, Early, Baker 
and other counties, said that the labor question was adjust- 
ing itself more rapidly than had been expected, though 
planters were not supplied with as many hands as they 
wanted and many large farms were idle for want of 
laborers. 5 

Still some of the larger towns continued to be troubled 
with crowds of loafing negroes. In Augusta at the end 
of January the streets were thronged with negro vagrants 
when everyone was clamoring for laborers. Negro huck- 
sters harangued the loafers on street corners, telling them 

1 January 9, 1866. 

2 January 9, 1866. 

8 Macon Journal and Messenger, January 16, 1866. 

* Augusta Chronicle, May 13, 1866; Macon Telegraph, February 3, 1866. 

5 Ibid., January 10, 27 and February 14, 1866. 



56 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [t-5 

not to work for the whites unless they could get extrava- 
gant privileges. 1 But all of the negroes that remained in the 
towns after the holidays were not loafers. Some who 
settled down there were skilled mechanics of the planta- 
tion who found a good market for their craft in the city. 
This advertisement, for instance, appeared in an Augusta, 
paper, evidently written by a white friend of the persons 
whose names are signed : 2 

Work wanted — We have established a shop at Turnwold where 
we are prepared to do all manner of wood and iron work — 
wagon making and repairing included. We have not turned 
fools because we are free, but know we have to work for our 
living, and are determined to do it- We mean to be sober, 
industrious, honest, and respectful to white folks, and so we 
depend on them to give us work, (signed) William & Jim. 

Town life afforded many opportunities to blacks who ac- 
quired skill of one sort or another as slaves. For instance, 
in the Hull family in Athens, the house servants found var- 
ious means of living in the new conditions after emancipa- 
tion. The seamstress and her daughter moved into a house 
belonging to Mr. Hull and took in sewing enough to sup- 
port themselves. The carriage driver found work in a 
livery stable, and the old carpenter, who stuck to his mas- 
ter and was supported by him, made tubs and buckets for 
ready cash to buy dram and tobacco. 3 These are only a few 
instances of the many capable negroes who, having been 
household servants in towns or skilled mechanics on plan- 
tations, found profitable employment in towns and cities 
after emancipation. This new or greatly augmented class 
of black inhabitants changed the character of negro dwell- 



Augusta Chronicle, January 31, 1866. 
2 Ibid., April 17, 1866. 
8 Hull, Annals of Athens, p. 292. 



57] TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM 57 

ings in towns, which had formerly been small houses in the 
rear of white people's houses. Later, separate negro tene- 
ments were built in a distinct section of the city, the begin- 
ning of the " Shermantown " or " darktown " settlements, 
of Southern cities. 1 

Plantations on the sea-islands and coast lands where rice 
and long staple cotton were raised were abandoned when the 
Federal fleet in 1862 blockaded the Georgia coast. All 
planters who had facilities transported their slaves to the 
safer inland region or else left the plantations to the ne- 
groes to get along as best they might. At the end of the 
war, when owners returned to the islands, difficulties arose 
over claims to lands that were occupied by the negroes as 
their own. General Sherman, after his march to the sea in 
1864, assigned abandoned lands to negroes who had fol- 
lowed in his train. 2 But since he gave only a possessoiy 
title, rights were finally restored to the owners. After the 
war, conditions in the island and coast settlements were 
thoroughly chaotic, for vicious agents of the Freedmen's 
Bureau or men acting under its authorization did much to 
disturb the blacks and hinder instead of help them to make 
themselves self-supporting. Colored troops established at 
Darien and at other coast points also were contributing fac- 
tors towards disturbance. But by the end of 1865 the 
colored troops had been recalled, giving place to white 
regiments. Some of the negroes, who had been transported 
up state during the war, came wandering back, many of 
them with no means of support, saying that their masters 
had dismissed them without any share of the crop or wages. 3 

1 Macon Journal and Messenger, March 2, 1866. 

1 Macon Telegraph, February 10, 1866, quotes a letter from Gen.. 
Sherman to President Johnson of February 2, 1866; Trowbridge, 
Picture of the Desolated States, pp. 508, 509. 

8 Joint Committee on Reconstruction, pt. iii, p. 42, report of C. H.. 
Howard of the Freedmen's Bureau. 



5 8 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [58 

In the summer of 1866 General Steedman and General 
Fullerton, in investigating the working of the Freedmen's 
Bureau under commission from the War Department, made 
a careful tour of inspection of the Sea Islands of Georgia. 1 
At the Ogeechee River Settlement, the largest colony estab- 
lished by General Sherman's order, they found that the 
negroes had been duped by the agent, who left them at the 
end of the year with no share in the rice crop they had 
raised. The agent, who provided the workers during the 
season with government rations, had hired twenty-five f reed- 
men as guards and armed them with U. S. muskets, so as 
to prevent whites from entering the settlement. Even U. S. 
officers were refused admittance except by pass from the 
agent. On St. Simon's Island freedmen held eighteen 
valid land grants, encumbering four plantations. By the 
middle of 1866 most of the five or six hundred freedmen 
on the island were working for owners who had returned 
to occupy their plantations. They appeared well-fed and 
contented. On two plantations, though no formal contracts 
had been made, the negroes had confidence in fair treat- 
ment. Sapelo Island was exclusively cultivated by two* 
Northerners, who were running a big plantation, promising 
some success. The negroes were working for two^-thirds of 
the crop. In 1865 the freedmen of Sapelo Island had fallen 
into the hands of some unprincipled men who came with 
permits from the Freedmen's Bureau and bought their 
cotton at 10 cents per pound, paying mostly in whisky. 2 St. 
Catherine's Island was in the grip of the notorious Tunis 

^he Steedman-Fullerton Report, on which this account is based, is 
printed in full in the New York Herald, beginning June 13, 1866 ; parts 
dealing with Georgia appear in the Savannah News and Herald, May 
19, 21, and August 15, 1866, and Augusta Chronicle, June 16, 1866. 

2 New York Herald, June 2, 1866. Correspondent with Steedman and 
Fullerton. 



59] 



TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM 



59 



G. Campbell, 1 a negro from Canada, appointed agent of the 
Bureau by General Saxton. Campbell had set up an auto- 
cratic government with an absurdly elaborate constitution, 
senate, house of representatives, courts of various kinds, 
and what not, with himself as chief autocrat. Seventeen 
valid land grants, 515 acres in all scattered over the island, 
were consolidated by General Tillson to cover one end of 
the island, leaving the remainder to the original owners. 
Two Northerners, who had rented part of the Walburg 
plantation and worked 147 hands, planted 530 acres in cot- 
ton and 115 acres in corn; whereas the 475 freedmen 
working for themselves, more than three times as many, 
planted only 200 acres of cotton and the same amount of 
corn : a commentary on the industry of the negro when left 
to himself. A special correspondent for the New York 
Herald, traveling with Steedman and Fullerton on their 
inspection tour, wrote the following as his opinion of the 
negro as land owner : 2 

This is but another illustration of the fact which I have pre- 
viously mentioned, namely, that the experiment of making 
the uneducated plantation negro a planter on his own account 
is an utter and unmitigated failure, injurious to the negro him- 
self and to the community in which he lives. The sooner the 
few valid land certificates issued under Gen. Sherman's order 
are bought up by the government, the better. It will remove 
a fruitful source of jealousy and ill-feeling among the blacks 
themselves, lessen the risk of unfriendly collision with the 
whites, and in the end be much better for all concerned- 

The journal which Frances Butler Leigh kept of her resi- 
dence on her father's plantations on St. Simon's Island and 
Butler's Island (near Darien) is a valuable account of con- 

1 Notorious in the later reconstruction period of Georgia. 

2 New York Herald, June 2, 1866. 



60 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [60 

ditions on the Sea Islands after the war. 1 Early in 1866 
letters from a neighbor and from a Bureau agent informed 
Mr. Butler, who had resided in the North during the war, 
that all his slaves had returned to the island and would 
hire to no one else though they were badly in need of pro- 
visions. When Mr. Butler returned, in addition to his own 
negroes there were some whom he had sold eight years 
before. Seven had worked their way from the up-country. 
Since it was too late to plant a full crop, only enough was 
planted to make seed for another year and to clear expenses, 
the negroes to have one-half of what was raised. The ne- 
groes seemed happy to get back to the old place and to 
their master. Everything which had been left in their 
charge was restored, and one old couple, " Uncle John and 
Mum Peggy came with five dollars in silver half-dollars 
tied up in a bag, which had been given to them in the second 
year of the war by a Yankee captain for some chickens. 
The negroes on St. Simon's Island, who had come under 
the influence of Northern soldiers during the war, seemed 
disappointed that the land was not really theirs as the 
Yankees had told them. They had planted some corn and 
cotton, which Mr. Butler allowed them to keep, provided 
they should plant twenty acres for him, for which he would 
feed and clothe them. After the first year's experience, 
when Mr. Butler found that it was decidedly more difficult 
to carry on a plantation with free than with slave labor, 
he arranged with a Northerner who had leased a place on 
St. Simon's to manage the Butler place for him on shares. 
Mr. Butler's experience was not by any means unique. 
After the war the prosperity of the rice and sea-island 
cotton plantations vanished. 

In the difficult period of transition from slavery to free- 



Leigh, Ten Years on a Georgia Plantation since the War. 



6i] TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM 6 1 

dom, Georgia was particularly fortunate in having General 
David Tillson in charge of the Freedmen's Bureau from 
September, 1865, to January, 1867. 1 General Tillson was 
an enlightened man, fully in sympathy with the demands 
upon him to safeguard the interests of the negro, but in- 
telligent enough to* understand that the negro's welfare 
would not be advanced by stirring up the hostility of the 
former masters. It was his policy to secure the co-operation 
of the citizens of Georgia with the Bureau so far as pos- 
sible. Hence, on October 25th he wrote to Provisional Gov- 
ernor Johnson, requesting him to instruct such justices of 
the peace and ordinaries of the counties, as might be desig- 
nated by the Freedmen's Bureau, to act as agents. In se- 
lecting such civil officers as Bureau agents, Tillson promised 
to be guided by the competency and fitness of the officers 
to do simple justice without reference to condition or color. 2 
Further co-operation was established between civil author- 
ity and the Bureau when the Assistant Commissioner asked 
the Provisional Governor to constitute the civil courts of 
the governor's appointment as freedmen's courts, whenever 
the judges were ready to accept such recognition. This was 
done with satisfactory results in most instances. In De- 
cember, 1866, the legislature passed a law which made valid 
the contracts of apprenticeship made by citizens of Georgia 
with Freedmen's Bureau agents, the same as if made ac- 
cording to statutory provisions of the state. 3 

The main activities of the Freedmen's Bureau in 1865 

1 General Saxton was Assistant Commissioner for South Carolina, 
Georgia and Florida up to January, 1866, but was relieved in Georgia 
in December, 1865. Before that time Tillson was a subordinate under 
him. 

2 Journal of the Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of the 
People of Georgia, 1865, p. 30. 

3 Acts of the General Assembly, 1866, p. 141. 



62 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[62 



and 1866 concerned the physical and economic needs of the 
negroes. It also directed educational opportunities for the 
freedmen in connection with Northern philanthropic socie- 
ties. In the early months after emancipation, when the 
freedmen could not or would not earn their living, supplies 
from the Bureau kept many of them from starving. Be- 
tween June, 1865, and September, 1866, 847,699 rations 
were furnished in Georgia; and in the next year from 
September, 1866, to September, 1867, about half that 
amount, less in Georgia than in the neighboring states. To 
care for the sick and helpless, the Freedmen's Bureau had 
five hospitals in Georgia in 1865, seven in 1866. 1 

Besides relieving distress among the freedmen, the most 
important work of the Freedmen's Bureau in 1865 and 
1866 was its regulation of labor in getting the negro to 
work and in fixing the terms of contract. General Tillson 
used his utmost energy to disabuse the negroes of the idea 
that they did not have to work for their living. His second 
circular order of October 3, 1865, gave notice that rations 
would not be furnished to able-bodied negroes for whom 
work could be found ; and his order of December 22d pro- 
nounced an ultimatum to idle negroes, giving them until 
January 15th to make contracts to labor. 2 This order, with 
the determination of Tillson to enforce it, was in no small 
part responsible for the betterment in the labor situation in 
1866. Prior to issuing this order, General Tillson held a 
meeting with planters in Savannah, at which he offered to 
do his best to induce negroes to make contracts and to en- 
force them, if the planters for their part would offer good 
wages. 3 In Augusta, Milledgeville and elsewhere, other 

1 Peirce, Freedmen's Bureau, pp. 92, 98. 

2 Milledgeville Federal Union, November 17, 1865; January 9, 1866. 

3 Joint Committee on Reconstruction, 1866, pt. iii, p. 41, report of 
C. H. Howard of the Freedmen's Bureau. 



63] TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM 63 

officers of the Freedmen's Bureau addressed public meetings 
in an effort to bring seekers after labor and the laborers 
into harmony. 1 The planters appealed to the Bureau to 
help them in another difficulty which confronted them, 
which was to protect them against other employers who 
would entice the negroes away, after they had already con- 
tracted for the year, by offer of higher wages. Some un- 
scrupulous men were ready to offer almost anything at the 
beginning of the season when hands were scarce, but were 
unable or unwilling to live up to their bargain when the 
day of reckoning came. As Ben Hill said : " How to make 
the negro observe his contract on the one hand, and how to 
make the bad white man fulfil his contract on the other, is 
just now the pons asinorum of our labor system ". 2 To 
cross this rather treacherous bridge, the employer and the 
laborer both needed some outside assistance, which only the 
Freedmen's Bureau was in a position to give in 1865, before 
the courts were ready to deal with the difficulty. 

The trouble with the Freedmen's Bureau, like any other 
piece of machinery, was that its usefulness depended largely 
on the hands that operated it. Many of the subordinate 
agents were incompetent, unfit for what was a most difficult 
and delicate work. The system of payment of agents by 
fees, which continued in force until 1867, encouraged the 
worst class of agents to use their office for what they could 
get out of it. Their command over negroes was the source 
of great temptation to bribery. 3 Planters found that hands 
could be secured under favorable terms, sometimes, by 
greasing the palm of the Freedmen's Bureau agent. Some 
of the resident civil officers appointed as agents were ac- 

1 Augusta Constitutionalist, May 27, 1865; Milledgeville Federal 
Union, August 22, September 5, 1865. 

* Ku Klux Committee, vol. vii, p. 758. 

* Trowbridge, Picture of the Desolated States, p. 499. 



64 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[64 



cused by the head of the Bureau of abusing their powers in 
being unjust to the freedmen, and in inflicting cruel and 
unusual punishment upon them. 1 It was perhaps a rare ex- 
perience for an agent of the Bureau to receive commenda- 
tion from the white citizens in the district under his super- 
vision. The fact that Captain Thos. W. White, in charge 
•of the Bureau in Baldwin County, was a citizen of Mill- 
edgeville, and hence more in sympathy with the employer's 
point of view in settling difficulties that came before him 
than were non-resident agents, may account for the fol- 
lowing resolution passed at a public meeting of the repre- 
sentative townsmen of Milledgeville : 2 

Resolved, That in view of the happy and quiet state of affairs 
in Baldwin County, in regard to the free negroes, resulting 
from the judicious exercise of his powers as Freedmen's 
Bureau Agent, by Capt. Thos. W. White, we, the people of the 
•county, hereby tender to Capt. White our hearty thanks and 
commendation for the enlightened, moderate and useful ad- 
ministration of his office among us, and hereby acknowledge 
our public obligations to him, on his retirement. 

The bad repute of the Freedmen's Bureau was due more 
directly to the political activities of its agents in 1867 and 
1868, when they manipulated the helpless black voters for 
their own aggrandizement. But even in the first year and 
a half after the war, the Bureau, as a Federal organ com- 
ing between the white man and the blacks, was resented by 
most of the white people in the South. The judgment of 
General Steedman and General Fullerton after their inves- 
tigation in the summer of 1866 was that the Bureau in 
Georgia, under the administration of General Saxton, was 

1 Report of Commissioner Howard in the Report of the Secretary of 
War, 1867, vol. i, p. 673. 

2 Milledgeville Federal Union, May 1, 1866. 



65] TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM 65 

badly mismanaged, granting unnecessary support and un- 
necessary tutelage and guardianship to the freedmen, and 
teaching them to distrust the whites. But General Tillson's 
management was commended in the warmest terms. 1 J. R. 
Dennett, correspondent for the Nation, traveling in the 
South, noted that the Bureau was generally denounced, 
though some favorable opinions were expressed from a 
man's personal experience. 2 A Northern resident in 
Georgia testified before the Reconstruction Committee of 
Congress that in Upper and Middle Georgia confidence was 
expressed in the Freedmen's Bureau and in General Tillson. 
It was good for both planters and negroes, necessary to 
make the negro work, he thought. 3 Provisional Governor 
Johnson said that something like the Freedmen's Bureau 
was necessary. The law was all right, but its enforcement 
was sometimes ineffective. Hostility toward its agents 
was abating in 1866, especially among those who formerly 
owned slaves. 4 B. C. Truman, sent south by the President 
in the fall of 1865, remarked that the Freedmen's Bureau 
and its agents were hated by a class of whites, mostly " poor 
whites ", not the slave holders. In his opinion the Bureau 
was well officered and managed, a necessity to both races. 5 
The Macon Telegraph on February 4, 1866, urging that the 
Bureau be abolished as speedily as possible, said : 

Georgia has taken the matter in hand, and, through the 
agency of an enlightened committee of her citizens, de- 
vised a code for the government and protection of the black 

1 New York Herald, June 13, 1866. 

2 Nation, February 1, 1866. 

3 Joint Committee on Reconstruction, 1866, pt. iii, p. no (Test: 
Welles). 

4 Ibid., p. 129. 

* New York Times, November 23, 1865. 



66 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[66 



man that, if let alone, will do more in five years to secure his 
rights and revive prosperity in her borders than all the schemes 
that northern theorists could devise in a century. 

The Milledgeville Federal Union of May 29, 1866, said that 
the Freedmen's Bureau was no longer needed in Georgia if 
it ever had been. A few military garrisons at two or three 
points in the state would be all that was necessary to pro- 
tect the negroes. "If Congress would let us alone, we 
could work out our problem satisfactorily without even a 
soldier in the state. But people cannot object to orderly 
white soldiers — might prefer to have them for a time." 
The Savannah News was uncompromising in its judgment 
of the Bureau — " a social and moral evil, keeping alive 
antagonism between the races Public opinion, as Sidney 
Andrews read it, was that the Freedmen's Bureau was a 
necessary evil that must be endured, though the people 
would rather have the negroes left to their own control.* 
To be left alone to work out the negro problem without in- 
terference from the North was the intense desire of the 
South. This was the keynote of the address of H. V. John- 
son, President of the Constitutional Convention in 1865, 
who said : 3 

It is true our labor system has been entirely deranged, al- 
most destroyed ; and we are now to enter upon the experiment, 
whether or not the means of labor which are left to us, the 
class of people to which we are to look in the future as our 
laboring class, can be organized into efficient and trustworthy 
laborers. That may be done, or I hope it may be done if left 
to ourselves. If I could have the ear of the entire people of 
the United States, and if I might be permitted, humble though 

1 May 22, 1866. 

s Joint Committee on Reconstruction, 1866, pt. iii, p. 173- 
% Journal of the Constitutional Convention, 1865, p. 203. 



TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM 



I be, to utter an admonition, not by way of threat, but for 
the purpose of animating them to the pursuit of a policy 
which would be wise, and salutary, and fraternal, and best for 
the country, I would implore them that, so far as providing 
for this branch of our population is concerned, and their or- 
ganization into a class of efficient and trustworthy laborers, 
the Federal Government should just simply let us alone- We 
understand the character of that class of people, their capac- 
ities, their instincts, and the motives which control their con- 
duct. If we cannot succeed in making them trustworthy and 
efficient as laborers, I think it is not saying too much, when 
we affirm that the Federal Government need not attempt it. 
I trust they will not, and that we will have the poor privilege 
of being let alone, in the future, in reference to this class 
of our people. 

Had all the inhabitants of Georgia been as fair-minded 
and as humane toward the freedmen as H. V. Johnson, 
Alex. H. Stephens, John B. Gordon, and the like, there 
would have been no need of such an institution as the 
Freedmen's Bureau. 1 But in conditions as they were, even 
with the large bulk of evil influence justly charged against 
some of its agents, the Freedmen's Bureau was, on the 
whole, an important constructive force towards economic 
adjustment in the immediate transition from slavery to 
freedom. 

1 See address of Alex. H. Stephens before the Georgia Legislature on 
February 22, 1866. Journal of the House, 1865-6, pp. 413-28; also 
testimony of General Gordon, before the Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, 
p. 305, et seq. 



CHAPTER III 



Labor and Land 

For the remainder of the season of 1865, after emancipa- 
tion destroyed titles in slave property, Georgia planters at- 
tempted to continue their planting operations with as little 
change as possible from the old routine, by the substitution 
of some kind of payment to the freedmen for labor formerly 
exacted of them. This was the ideal of the planter in 
1865, to cultivate on a large scale, to work the negroes in 
gangs as formerly under strict control, but to pay them 
some kind of wage, either a share of the crop or money. 
But the difficulty in achieving this ideal in most parts of 
agricultural Georgia was that the taste of freedom was 
sweet to the negro, and as a free agent he wished to get as 
far as possible from the old regime. The negro's ideal was 
to have a little farm or patch of ground of his own, to cul- 
tivate when and how he pleased, to establish his family as 
an independent social and economic group without subjec- 
tion to any master or overseer. The warring of these two* 
ideals forced the remodeling of the agrarian system of 
Georgia that has taken place since 1865. 1 In the contest 
for supremacy the planter was at a disadvantage in many 
ways. He had little capital and but limited credit. He 
was rigid in his ideas and unadaptable to change. He 
had always cultivated his land in one way and lacked the 

1 On this subject two important monographs have been published, 
Banks, Economics of Land Tenure in Georgia, and Brooks, Agrarian 
Revolution in Georgia. 

68 [63 



69] LABOR AND LAND fig 

constructive power to create a new system instead of try- 
ing to resurrect the old. The new order came in spite of 
him instead of because of him. The negro had the upper 
hand. The white man wanted his work more than the 
negro wanted to work. With the migration of freedmen 
to towns and with the drain of the labor force to newer and 
better paying fields in Mississippi and Louisiana, the de- 
mand for labor far exceeded the supply. On the other 
hand, the freedman was handicapped by his ignorance and 
by his defective bargaining powers. But this weakness of 
the laborer was more than made up where the Freedmen's 
Bureau was established. It was the business of its agents 
to supervise the making of labor contracts so as to protect 
the interests of the freedmen. 

The first general order of Assistant Commissioner Till- 
son of the Freedmen's Bureau on October 3, 1865, directed 
that labor contracts for 1866 should be in writing, and gave 
the following as a model form for the use of agents : 1 

Know all men by these presents, that — of the county of — , 
state of — , held and firmly bound to the United States of 
America in the sum of — dollars, for the payment of which — 
bind — heirs, executors, administrators firmly by these presents 
in this contract : That — furnish the persons whose names 
are subjoined, (freed laborers) quarters, fuel, substantial and 
healthy rations, all medical attendance and supplies in case of 
sickness, and the amount set opposite their respective names 
per month during the continuation of the contract ; the laborers 
to be paid in full before the final disposal of the crop which 
is to be raised by them on — plantation, in the county of — , 
state of — . 



1 Milledgeville Federal Union, November 17, 1865. 



yo 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[70 



No. 



Names i Age 



Rates of pay per month 
Dollars Cents 



This contract is to commence with this date and close with the 
year. Given in duplicate to — this — day of — 186 — . 
Registered — , 186 — . 



In places where the freedmen remained 011 the plantation 
at the end of the war, chiefly in the southwestern part of 
the state, the plantation was less disturbed than elsewhere. 
Planters attempted to make arrangements with their former 
slaves to continue cultivating the crop, promising a share 
of the crop at the end of the year. Payment by a share of 
the crop was the general rule in Southwest Georgia in 1865. 
Even in this section, where conditions were more favorable 
than in other regions, many were the trials of planters who 
tried to continue in the old way with free labor. The fol- 
lowing letters are an expression of the difficulties which 
confronted Howell Cobb on his plantations in Middle and 
Southwestern Georgia. 1 There the old system was retained, 

1 Letters in MSS. in the possession of Mrs. A. S. Erwin of Athens, 
Ga., to whom I am indebted, also to Professor U. B. Phillips of 
the University of Michigan, for the use of the correspondence of 
Howell Cobb. These two letters have since been published in Brooks, 
Agrarian Revolution of Georgia, pp. 20-2. The letter from J. D. 
Collins to John A. Cobb has appeared in the collection of Cobb's 
correspondence, edited by U. B. Phillips, in Annual Report of the 
American Historical Association, 191 1, vol. ii, pp. 665-6. Collins was 
the overseer on one of Cobb's plantations, and John A. Cobb was the 
son of Howell Cobb. 



Witness : 



Supt. of Dist. 



7i] 



LABOR AND LAND 



71 



whereby the negroes worked under an overseer as formerly, 
the only difference being that they were paid one-third of 
the crop, out of which they had to maintain themselves. 

[J. D. Collins to John A. Cobb.] 

Baldwin County, Hurricane Plantation. 

July 31, 1865. 

Dear Sir, 

Acordin to promis I write you to inform you how the ne- 
grows or freedmen air getting on. tha dont doo as well as tha 
did a few weeks back your propersition to hier them has no 
effect on them at tall tha say and contend that onley three of 
them agreed to stay that was the three that spoke Sam, Al- 
leck, and Johnson the rest claim tha made no agreement what- 
ever an you had as well sing Sams to a ded horse as to tri to 
instruct a fool negrow Some of them go out to work verry 
well others stay at their houseses untell & hour by sun others 
go to their houseses and stay two & three days Say enny 
thing to them the reply is I am sick but tha air drying fruit 
all the time tha take all day evry Satturday without my lief 
I gave orders last Satturday morning for them to go to work 
when tha got the order eight went out I ordered torn to go to 
mill he said he would not doo so. tha air steeling the green 
corn verry rapped som of them go where tha pleas and when 
tha pleas and pay no attention to your orders nor mine : the 
commandant of post at milledgeville sent walker back under 
Gen Wilson order I explained the matter to him but he would 
send him back unless you had paid him for his work up to 
the time you ordered him off I told walker ef he came back 
he would not get a cent for his work not even his clothes nor 
those he came back in the face of all the orders had been given 
him- I drove him off the Secont time after you left before I 
received a written order to take him back I then went down 
and saw the officer in command an exsplained the hole matter 
to him but he said he could not allow him driven off without 
violating Gen. Wilsons order an he was compeld to carry them 
out as sutch the matter stands as above stated it would be best 



72 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [y 2 

for you to visit the plantation soon or write a verry positive 
letter to be read to them requiering them to work or leave 
though I think I will get som of them by not feeding them 
which proses is now going on though tha is rather two mutch 
fruit and green corn to have a good effect. I send Alleck up 
with the wagon and mule pleas write back by Alleck I am sick 
at this time I have had fever for three days no other matters 
of importance at present. 

P. S. We will need som barriels to put syrup in in about six. 
weeks. 

[Howell Cobb to his Wife.] 

Dominie Place, Sumter Co. 
My Dear Wife, (December, 1865.) 

I avail myself of the first opportunity to send a letter to 
town. I find a worse state of things with the negroes than I 
expected, and am unable even now to say what we shall be able 
to do. From Nathan Barwick's place every negro has left. 
There is not one to feed the stock, and on the other places none 
has contracted as yet. I shall stay here until I see what can 
be done. By Tuesday we shall probably know what they will 
do. At all events I shall then look out for other negroes. I 
intend to send Nathan Barwick to Baldwin on Wednesday to 
see what hands can be got there, with the assistance of Wilker- 
son- I am offering them even better terms than I gave them 
last year, to wit, one-third of the cotton and corn crop, and 
they feed and clothe themselves, but nothing satisfies them. 
Grant them one thing, and they demand something more, and 
there is no telling where they would stop. The truth is, I am 
thoroughly disgusted with free negro labor, and am deter- 
mined that the next year shall close my planting operations 
with them. There is no feeling of gratitude in their nature. 
Let any man offer them some little more freedom, and they 
catch at it with avidity, and would sacrifice their best friend 
without hesitation and without regret. That miserable creature 
Wilkes Flag sent old Ellick down to get the negroes from 
Nathan Barwick's place. Old Ellick staid out in the woods and 



73] 



LABOR AND LAND 



73 



sent for the negroes and they were bargaining with him in the 
night and telling Barwick in the day that they were going to 
stay with him. The moment they got their money, they started 
for the railroad- This is but one instance but it is the history 
of all of them. Among the number was Anderson, son of Sye 
and Sentry, whom I am supporting at the Hurricane. 

In these first contracts there was great variety in the 
terms of hiring. In addition to the scheme just mentioned, 
other agreements provided that the hand would receive his 
maintenance during the season as well as a stated share of 
the crop at the end. In this way, if the laborer broke his 
contract before the end of the season, he lost everything ex- 
cept the food he had consumed and the clothes he wore. 
Still other contracts called for so much a month or a year. 
When wage was agreed to by the month, the planter tried 
to hold the laborer by paying only half each month and the 
remainder at the close of the season. 

From the experience of 1865 it w r as seen that both 
methods of payment, by share and by money, had their dif- 
ficulties. It was about six of one and half a dozen of the 
other. Those who had paid by shares wished they had 
paid money; and those who bargained for money thought 
that things would have been better had they hired their 
laborers for shares. The authoritative agricultural paper 
of Georgia at the close of the season of 1865 carefully can- 
vassed both methods in an editorial on " Contracts with 
Laborers ". 1 Of the tw T o methods, the editor thought that 
it would be best, if possible, to pay hands a stipulated price 
per week, and reserve half until the end of the year, which 
would be forfeited if the agreement was not kept. Deduc- 
tions ought to be made for idleness or tardiness, as with 
factory labor in the North. Then additional hands could 
be hired at special times for extra work. To the money 

1 Southern Cultivator, December, 1865. 



1 



74 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[74 



wage system, however, there were three objections. The 
planter didn't know what kind of labor he could get — most 
hands had no regular hours of work and moved lazily ; then 
the planter could offer only small wages, which would react 
badly on the negro, not encouraging him to take pains. 
Moderate wages would make the Northern Radicals think 
that the negro was being oppressed. And most people had 
not the means to pay money wage. On the whole, concluded 
the writer, the best thing for all parties under the circum- 
stances would be share payment. Shares would vary on 
different plantations, less on more fertile ones, where more 
of the work was done by animals and less by hand. 

The scheme of payment of laborers by shares is described 
thus by Frances Butler Leigh, as practised on her father's 
plantation : 

Our contract with them is for half the crop ; that is, one-half 
to be divided among them according to each man's rate of 
work, we letting them have in the meantime necessary food, 
clothing and money for their present wants (as they have not a 
penny) which is to be deducted from whatever is due to them 
at the end of the year. 1 

Where the old plantation system was kept as closely as 
possible, the former slaves simply became hired hands 
under contract for a year. Their payment was either in a 
share of the crop or in a stated money wage. In 1865 pay- 
ment in a share of the crop was more common than money 
payments. 2 The shortage in money at the end of the war 

1 Leigh, Ten Years on a Georgia Plantation since the War, p. 26. 

3 See Brooks, Agrarian Revolution in Georgia, p. 18. "In 1865, 
therefore, in a great number of cases all the externals of the former 
regime were continued : the negroes lived in ' quarters ', went to the 
fields at tap of farm bell, worked in gangs under direction, and were 
rationed from the plantation smokehouse, the charge for food being 
deducted from the wage. A money wage was usually paid in 1865 



yc] LABOR AND LAND 75 

made some sort of payment in kind practically necessary 
for a time. All the ready cash that the planter realized 
from the sale of his cotton on hand and all the credit that 
he could command were consumed in purchase of stock and 
provisions for the season, with none left in the great ma- 
jority of cases for the payment of hands. Then, too, the 
extreme mobility and uncertainty of labor, together with 
the negro's ignorance of money values, made payment in 
the crop more practicable to the planter. 1 The method of 
hiring, by which a share of the crop was offered to be paid 
at the end of the harvest season, out of which the cost of 
provisions furnished to the hands during the season was 
deducted, the plan used by Howell Cobb on his plantations, 
kept the negro more nearly in his former position than any 
other; especially when the organization of the plantation 
continued to be squad work under the direction of the 
planter or his overseer. 

The labor problem thus offered perplexing difficulties. 
To discuss the question, General Tillson met with planters 
in Savannah on December 9, 1865. He offered to do his 
part to induce the freedmen to make contracts and to en- 
force them if the planters offered good wages. Planters 
thought $8, $10, or $12 a month with food would be a 
good wage for a full hand, the majority agreeing on $10 
with food. But General Tillson said he would not help to 
make contracts for less than $12 to $15 with food for 
males, and $8 to $10 for females. Some few planters 
agreed to this stipulation. 2 In the circular which General 

and 1866, the payment being weekly, monthly, or yearly, according to 
contract." From the many current accounts of farming operations 
which were published in the Georgia papers, I am led to differ with 
Mr. Brooks on this last point. While both kinds of payment were 
used side by side, I think share payment was more common. 

1 Banks, Economics of Land Tenure in Georgia, p. 78, et seq. 

2 Joint Committee on Reconstruction, pt. iii, p. 41 (report of Brevet 
Brig. Gen. C. H. Howard to Gen. O. O. Howard, December 30, 1865.) 



76 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [76 

Tillson sent to agents of the Bureau on December 22d, he 
set down the following as standard wages: in Upper and 
Middle Georgia, where land was not rich, $12-13 P er month 
with board and lodging for full male hand, and $8-10 for 
full female hand, the laborers to furnish their own cloth- 
ing and medicine ; along the coast and in Southwest Georgia^ 
$15 for full male and $10 for full female. In all parts of 
the state, since some planters preferred to pay in part of 
the crop, one-third the gross to one-half the net proceeds 
might be considered a fair equivalent to the wages stipu- 
lated. 1 But the standard set by the Freedmen's Bureau was 
by no means held where planters could secure hands for less. 
J. R. Dennett, writing for the Nation in his series of ar- 
ticles, " The South as It Is ", reported from Macon and 
Columbus that the $12 rule was not enforced, that the 
majority of contracts calling for a money wage were for 
$120 a year and board. 2 This was good wages, for re- 
ports in the newspapers of 1866 gave $10.0 with rations as 
the current wage for a full hand, though payments varied 
from $75 to $140 for men and from $50 to $100 for 
women. In South Georgia a large majority of laborers 
worked for a part of the crop, one-third if they provided 
for themselves or one-fourth with everything furnished. 
Where money was paid, it was a common practice to pay 
one-half at the end of each month and the other half at 
the end of the year. This was done to hold the negro if 
possible until the end of the harvest season. 3 

The experiment of cultivating land with free contract 
labor was beset with two great difficulties, to keep the negro 

1 Milledgeville Federal Union, January 9, 1866. 

2 Nation, February 1, 1866. 

8 Reports from various counties in Macon Telegraph, January 27, 
February 3, 1866; Macon Journal and Messenger, January 3, 1866; 
Savannah Herald, March 28, 1866; etc. Also conversation with Mr. 
S. M. Mays of Augusta, Ga., a planter in Columbia County. 



77] LABOR AND LAND yj 

to his contract and to make him work steadily and regu- 
larly. It was hardly to be expected that the blacks, after 
their long habits as slave-driven workers, would under- 
stand the obligation of a contract. They were fickle, ready 
to quit work under the least provocation and to break one 
contract to make another under the inducement of higher 
wages. When the farmer set out to plant cotton in the 
spring with sixty hands, he had no security that sixteen or 
six would remain to work it during the summer and to pick 
in the fall. The blame did not rest entirely with the irre- 
sponsible blacks, but with employers who induced negroes 
by offer of higher wages to break their contracts. Agents 
came from further south, from Louisiana and Mississippi, 
where labor was in great demand, and beguiled the negroes 
away in the night by offering $20 or $25/ Planters ap- 
pealed to the Freedmen's Bureau for help, and General 
Tillson, in his circular order of December 22, 1865, gave 
the following instruction : 2 " All persons are forbidden to 
tamper with or entice laborers to leave their employers be- 
fore the expiration of their contracts, either by offering 
higher wages, or other inducements. Officers will punish, 
by fine or otherwise, any person who may be convicted of 
such acts." Agents probably afforded some sanction to the 
binding force of contracts on the negroes, but still the diffi- 
culty continued during 1866, apparent in the numerous com- 
plaints registered in the newspapers of that year. 

1 Macon Journal and Messenger, March 21, 1866; Savannah News, 
August 3, 1866; New York Times, November 23, 1866 (Truman); 
Joint Committee on Reconstruction, pt. iii, p. 167 (Test.: J P. Ham- 
bleton) . 

2 Milledgeville Federal Union, January 9, 1866. In 1866 a law was 
passed by the state legislature which made it a misdemeanor to entice 
another's servants. Acts of the General Assembly, 1866, pp. 153-4. 
A case is cited by Mr. Brooks in which a verdict was rendered for 
$5000 against a man who enticed another man's laborers. Agrarian 
Revolution in Georgia, p. 30. 



yS RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [78 

When the compulsory methods of slavery disappeared, 
there was absolutely no power to keep the negro steadily 
and regularly at work. Everywhere negroes worked more 
lazily than they did as slaves. Where formerly a negro, 
properly supplied with mules, was expected to cultivate 
fifteen acres, after emancipation only ten acres could be 
counted on. 1 The crop, after it was planted, was neglected. 
Sometimes the whole force would put aside work and go 
off fishing for the day. There were many like Zeke, a hand 
on a plantation near Savannah, who left the field about 
eleven o'clock — said it was too warm to work, and besides 
he had promised " the lady " to go to school. Sometimes 
hands worked only half a day and sometimes less, and 
Saturday was always their day off. 2 The only means of 
control which the planter could exercise over loafing and ir- 
regularity was by docking the delinquent's wages. But 
such penalty, deferred to the end of the month or the 
year when pay time came, had no deterrent effect on the 
lazy, pleasure-loving freedmen. Planters, who had gone 
deeply in debt for their year's supplies, despaired of clear- 
ing anything at the end of the year, for cotton required con- 
stant and regular care and a fair crop could not possibly be 
raised with such haphazard labor. One disadvantage of 
the share system, so widely used in 1866, was that the ne- 
groes considered it perfectly fair if they lost three days out 
of a week, since they were losers as well as the owners. 
They could not understand that a crop could not be raised 
on half-time labor. They thought if six days would raise 
a whole crop, three days would raise half a crop, which 
would satisfy them. Half a day's work might keep them 

1 Augusta Constitutionalist, July 1, 1866; Nation, February 1, 1866 
(Dennett). 

2 Augusta Constitutionalist, July 1 and October 5, 1865; Augusta 
Chronicle, April 19, 1866. 



79] LABOR AND LAND 

from starving, which was all they cared for, but it would 
not raise a successful crop for the owner who had staked 
heavily on the year's planting. 1 

Hiring for wages, either in money or in crop, made no 
material change in the plantation system, for wage or 
share laborers were worked in squads under direction of 
their labor as in slavery. From the planter's point of view 
this was the most desirable method of utilizing free labor, 
but the least desirable in the negro's estimation. It was the 
ambition of all enterprising negroes to own small farms of 
their own, which they could cultivate as a family, free from 
any outside control. But with their poverty and the disin- 
clination of the whites to see the freedmen become property 
holders, by the end of 1866 very few negroes had managed 
to> secure holdings in their own right. There were some 
small holdings in the neighborhood of towns and on the 
abandoned coast lands, which they held under the super- 
vision of the Freedmen's Bureau. Mr. Hull, of Athens, 
tells of two hands on his father's plantation who came to 
buy lands for themselves. One had coins amounting to 
fifty dollars which he had saved for years; the other bought 
on credit a few acres where he built a rude cabin and 
worked hard all the rest of his life with few comforts. 2 In 
the first year and a half of freedom negroes had not accu- 
mulated enough to buy land, and then there was not much 
marketable land at low prices until many planters were 
forced to 1 give up a part of their lands after failure and 
heavy indebtedness at the end of 1866. 

Between these two systems, in which the freedman was a 
hired laborer or else an independent property owner, an 
intermediate plan grew up wherein the negro freed himself 

1 Leigh, op. cit., pp. 25-7. 

2 Hull, Annals of Athens, pp. 292-3. 



80 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [80 

in large measure from control by the planter and worked 
in a family group instead of the old associated labor group. 
This was accomplished in different kinds of tenancy, which 
varied as to amount and kind of capital furnished by the 
planter with the consequent degree of regulation over the 
tenant, and the amount and kind of payment made by the 
tenant. While tenancy belongs more distinctly to the later 
period of the agrarian revolution in Georgia, it had its 
beginnings immediately after the war and existed to a con- 
siderable degree as early as 1866. When it appeared it 
was almost always the sign of the inability of the planter 
to withstand the efforts of the negro to rise from the con- 
dition of subjection he was under as a wage or share lab- 
orer. There were some exceptional instances where the 
landowner adopted tenancy voluntarily as an experiment 
looking towards the social as well as the economic better- 
ment of the freedmen. 1 When a negro became a tenant, 
he ceased to work in a group of laborers under the constant 
supervision of the owner or overseer, and received from the 
owner a special piece of land, generally stocked completely 
by the owner, for the use of which the tenant paid a share 
of the crop, varying generally from one-fifth to one-fourth. 
A newspaper reporter traveling in Georgia in the winter of 
1865-66 found five cases of negro tenancy in which the rent 
varied from one-fifth to one-half. In one instance the rent 
for forty acres was $250 and 48 bushels of meal. 2 In 1866 
there were not many instances of tenancy in which the ten- 
ant furnished part of the capital, paid a money rent, and 
received no control over his management from the landlord. 

1 Alex. H. Stephens was one of those who parceled out his lands 
among his former slaves as tenants, thinking it the best arrangement 
for the freedmen's interests. Avary (ed.), Recollections of Alex. H. 
Stephens, pp. 144, 201. 

2 Nation, February 1, 1866 (Dennett). 



81] LABOR AND LAND 8 1 

But tenancy, likewise, brought difficulties, as the following 
incident shows : 1 

A tenant worked a piece of land, for which he was to pay one- 
fourth of the corn produced. When he gathered his crop, he 
hauled three loads to his own house, thereby exhausting the 
supply in the field. When, soon after, he came to return his 
landlord's wagon, which he had used in the hauling, the latter 
asked suggestively : 

" Well, William, where's my share of the corn? " 

" You ain't got none, sah ! " said William. 

" Haven't got any ! Why, wasn't I to have the fourth of all 
you made? " 

" Yes, sah ; but hit never made no fourth ; dere wasn't but 
dess my three loads made." 

But often it was the negro who suffered from his ignor- 
ance of arithmetic. A gentleman in Milledgeville tells of a 
negro who failed to get anything after his year's labor, be- 
cause by agreement he was to get one-half of the crop, 
and his employer put him off without anything with the ex- 
planation that only half a crop was raised. Another story 
is told of negroes on a plantation in Wilkes County who 
quit work in high discontent when they discovered that the 
hands on a neighboring plantation had contracted for one- 
fifth of the crop, whereas they had been promised only one- 
fourth. 2 

Tenancy grew from both above and below — from the 
needs of the planter, his poverty, lack of capital, and the 
uncertainty and instability of his labor force; and from the 
demands of the negro to be free from supervision and his 
inability to satisfy his demand for freedom through out- 

^Barrow, "A Georgia Plantation," in Scribner's Magazine, April, 1881. 

' Conversation with Capt. T. F. Newell of Milledgeville and Miss 
E. F. Andrews of Washington, Ga. 



82 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[82 



right purchase of land. 1 With tenancy, when the negro no 
longer worked as a member of a group of laborers and 
when his work was not subject to constant supervision, two 
of the essential elements of the ante-bellum plantation sys- 
tem had disappeared, though the land still remained in the 
owner's possession. The importance of tenancy even in 
the first year and a half after the war is shown by the 
fact that landlords secured in 1866 the enactment of a law 
which gave them a lien on the crops of tenants. 2 

The family system of cultivation, which tenancy made 
possible, marked a distinct step forward in the social de- 
velopment of the negro. To establish the negro family as 
the industrial unit was the scheme which seemed to General 
Wilson, who was in command of part of Georgia at the 
end of the war, as the most promising for the freedmen's 
advance. The following letter, written by General Wilson 
from Macon in June, 1865, expresses his views on this sub- 
ject : 3 

... It may not be improper in this connection to call atten- 
tion to the present communal system of labor, practiced by 
slaveholders throughout the South. I believe it is susceptible 
of proof that nearly all of the crime and debasement of the 
Freedmen in their present condition is attributable to the fact 
that they are crowded together in villages offering every in- 
ducement and opportunity for promiscuous propagation, and 
allowing nothing like absolute protection to the family. Every 
individual of the community is made thereby subordinate to 
the brutalizing influence of the master's ignorance, cupidity and 
selfishness. 

1 For a discussion of tenancy see Banks, Economics of Land Tenure 
in Georgia, ch. v; and Brooks, Agrarian Revolution in Georgia, ch. ii 
and iii. 

3 Acts of the General Assembly, 1866, p. 141. 

8 This letter, addressed to Brig. Gen. Whipple, is in the Johnson 
MSS. in the Library of Congress. 



LABOR AND LAND 83 

I am convinced that the first step towards the civilization 
and elevation of the negro, by which he is to be made a useful 
and self-sustaining member of society, is to establish the family 
of every worthy man upon such a basis as will ensure it all the 
advantages of industry, good management, and virtuous aspir- 
ations. 

Practically, every landed proprietor who has freedmen upon 
his estate should be compelled to give every respectable and 
trustworthy man a life-lease upon as much land as he and his 
family could cultivate ; to build or allow the removal of houses 
and enclosures to the land, and require the lessee to live upon 
his own possessions, and paying a fair rate of rent either in 
money or in kind to the proprietor. 

Along with the tendency among the negroes to work as 
a family was the ambition of the freedwomen to transfer 
their sphere from the field to the home. The withdrawal 
of women from field labor was a large factor in the scar- 
city of agricultural labor after the war. Freedmen gener- 
ally refused to hire their wives, wishing to keep them at 
home to cook, tend the garden, do the washing, and the 
women liked to set themselves up as ladies with a home of 
their own. Where women did contract to labor, the wage 
was generally about $50 a year with provisions, though in 
some cases it was as high as $100 a year with board. Often 
women were paid by the month $3 or $4. One form of 
contract with women was to promise $4 a month cash when 
called for, at the end of one month or six, rations being 
furnished all the time and pay only when they worked. 
Household servants were in great demand and everywhere 
the complaints of housekeepers about no servants or un- 
satisfactory servants were as frequent as they are to-day. 1 

1 Macon Telegraph, February 3, 1866; Macon Journal and Messenger, 
■ November 28, 1866; Milledgeville Federal Union, December 26, 1865; 
Augusta Chronicle, July 11, 1866. 



83] 



8 4 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[84 



In Atlanta and Augusta and other cities it was no uncom- 
mon thing for families to change cooks a dozen times in 
three months, and eight out of every ten were pronounced 
worthless. The trouble was not confined to cities and 
towns. A Jefferson County correspondent wrote that, 
while the freedmen were doing pretty well, the women were 
generally idle, lazy and crazy, delighting in new shoes and 
jockey hats. 1 

With all this irregularity of labor the amount of crop that 
could be raised was most uncertain. In Southwest Georgia 
the crop of 1865 was more nearly normal than in any other 
section of the state. Lands had not been plundered by 
either army, planters ' houses, gin houses, and negro quar- 
ters were intact, and there in the first days of freedom the 
negroes were more inclined to 1 stay on the home place and 
less given to roving about than elsewhere. By the end 
of the year a considerable crop was harvested; in fact, al- 
most the whole cotton crop of Georgia in 1865 came from 
the Southwest. 2 In the eastern section of the cotton belt 
and in North Georgia prospects for any crop in 1865 were 
very bad indeed. Farming implements and stock had been 
taken or destroyed, plantations were overgrown with weeds, 
fences burned or fallen to pieces, cotton gins in ashes. 
Bad cotton seed, four or five years old, came up only about 
one in a thousand. 3 Much of what came to maturity was 
lost by neglect during the summer and through lack of 
labor to harvest in the fall. Along the coast much cotton 
in the fields was wasted for want of picking when negroes 
abandoned the plantations, and large quantities of sorghum 

1 Augusta Chronicle, May 13, 1866. 

■ For conditions in Southwest Georgia, see New York Times, October 
28, 1865 (Quondam) ; Savannah Herald, February 8, 1866. 

5 Joint Committee on Reconstruction, pt. iii, p. 167 (Test: Hamble- 
ton) ; and the Report of the Freedmen's Bureau for 1865. 



g 5 j LABOR AND LAND 

cane were left standing in the field for the want of har- 
vesters, 1 In North Georgia land was cultivated as small 
farms, the owners doing their own work with the aid of 
their sons. In this region slaves were few before the war, 
so hardship in 1865 came from the desolation wrought by 
the war, and not from the difficulties attendant upon eman- 
cipation. In the northeast counties, though not devas- 
tated by the armies, there was practically nothing growing 
in 1865, the failure being due to severe drought and to the 
depredations of lawless bands of bushwhackers. Severe 
distress among the whites resulted. 2 

Through the operation of the various causes mentioned 
above there was a general failure of crops in 1865. But the 
coming of the new year brought brighter prospects for 1866. 
The soaring price of cotton, 50 cents a pound in December, 
and the willingness of the blacks to contract and settle 
down to work after the Christmas holidays, gave new heart 
to despairing planters. Everywhere there was a mania 
for cotton planting. Everyone who owned a patch of 
ground and could get anyone to work it put in cotton, and 
lands were bought just for cotton. In January and Febru- 
ary there were optimistic expectations of a large crop, and 
cotton lands advanced in price. 3 Correspondents through- 
out the cotton region reported that vigorous preparations 
were being made for a big cotton planting to the neglect 
of provisions. Many planters who were in debt at the end 
of 1865, expecting to retrieve their losses, planted their 
best lands in cotton, the rest in corn, preferring to buy corn 

1 Macon Journal and Messenger, November 28, 1865 ; Milledgeville 
Federal Union, July 25, 1865. 

2 Avery, History of the State of Georgia, pp. 320-321. 

3 Macon Telegraph, January 10, 11, 1866; Savannah Herald, Febru- 
ary 21, 1866; Hull, Annals of Athens, p. 308. 



86 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[86 



and meat in the fall. 1 Many of the newspapers through 
their editorial columns warned against the policy of plant- 
ing much cotton and little corn. Planters, however, pro- 
ceeded on the idea that cotton would bring almost as high 
prices in 1866 as in the previous year, without calculating 
that with everyone rushing into making cotton, a full crop 
would necessarily bring the market down with a tumble. 
Moreover, with cotton still the basis of credit, it was hard 
for the planter to alter his crop. 

As the spring wore on, reports of the planting season 
and prospects of the crop became less and less cheering. In 
Middle Georgia, a failure of the seed to come up brought 
discouragement; heavy rains in other regions were unfav- 
orable. Expectations of the crop varied from three-fourths 
to one-half or one-third of a normal ante-bellum crop. 2 The 
hopefulness of early spring changed to doubt and despair 
in the fall. The cotton crop was a failure, though, accord- 
ing to general testimony, the freedmen worked better in 
1866 than was expected. Very few planters managed to 
clear expenses at the end of the season. 3 And in the grain 
fields of North Georgia a bad season of drought parched 
the growing crop early in August. 4 

Many Northerners, who were tempted by the conjunction 
of high cotton and cheap land at the end of the war, went 
to Georgia to begin planting operations in the fall of 1865, 
buying or leasing lands. One of the number, whose experi- 
ence was like that of many others, bought a plantation in 

1 Macon Journal and Messenger, January 3, 1866; Macon Telegraph, 
February 3, 1866; Milledgeville Federal Union, May 15, 1866. 

2 Ma-con Journal and Messenger, January 16, 1866; Milledgeville 
Federal Union, May 15, 1866; New York Herald, June 18, 1866 (special 
correspondent with Generals Steedman and Fullerton). 

* Atlanta New Era, October 18, 1866. 

4 Savannah News, August 13, 1866. 



87] LABOR AND LAND 87 

Columbia County, in the eastern end of the cotton belt. 
According to the account of his operations in 1866, he 
found himself at the end of the season just one thousand 
dollars short. Though a thorough-going abolitionist, heart- 
ily in sympathy with free labor, he came to the conclusion 
that farming was not profitable in Georgia after slavery 
was abolished, since the cost of raising cotton was about 
doubled. 1 

One of the results of the difficulties and failure in plant- 
ing in 1865 and 1866 was the extension of the credit sys- 
tem. The Southern farmer, even in prosperous years be- 
fore the war, never accumulated much surplus, for he turned 
over his profits, when there were any, into more land and 
more slaves. The cotton planter generally received from 
his factor in Macon or Savannah or Charleston necessary 
supplies for running the plantation during the season, for 
which he paid when cotton was marketed in the fall. 2 But 
during the war and later the planter became all the more 
dependent on what he could borrow, having to pay in some 
places two per cent per month for the money advanced to 
buy mules, wagons, ploughs, seed, etc. 3 1866 was a year of 
great expectations. Many and large debts were incurred 
in the hope of large returns, but the short crop of that year 
left the planter more deeply involved than ever. In 1866, 
to save the people from having the sheriff turned loose on 
them when probably not one man in ten could pay all his 
debts, the new state legislature enacted a stay law. The 
act of March 6th, passed over the governor's veto, sus- 

1 Stearns, The Black Man of the South and the Rebels, pp. 97, 150. 

2 For documents relating to the ante-bellum plantation economy, see 
Phillips, Plantation and Frontier (Documentary History of American 
Industrial Society, vols, i and ii) ; also Records of a Rice Plantation 
in the Georgia Lowlands. 

3 Augusta Chronicle, May 13, 1866. 



88 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[88 



pended levy and sale under execution on contracts or lia- 
bilities prior to June i, 1865, provided the defendant pay 
one-fourth of the debt annually, so* that the whole be paid 
in four years from January 1, 1866. 1 After the bad sea- 
son of 1866 the legislature gave further relief to the debtor 
by amending the stay law of March 6th to postpone the 
first payment to January 1, 1868, when one-third should be 
paid, and the remainder in thirds on January 1, 1869, and 
January 1, 1870. 2 At the same session of the legislature a 
lien law was passed, securing to landlords a lien on crops 
of tenants for stock, farming utensils, and provisions fur- 
nished such tenants, for the purpose of making their crops, 
and securing to factors and merchants a lien upon the grow- 
ing crops of farmers, for provisions and commercial man- 
ures furnished them for the purpose of making their 
crops. 3 

One of the permanent results of the war and emancipa- 
tion on land tenure in Georgia was the break-up of large 
plantations into smaller units for cultivation. 4 The process 
of disintegration went on to some extent in 1865 and 1866, 
but the stay law helped to keep some plantations intact 
and not until later did the break-up proceed with rapidity. 
In the first year and a half of the reconstruction period in 
Georgia, it was not so> much execution for debts as it was 
the difficulties of the labor problem that forced many own- 
ers to rent or sell. In the latter part of 1865 many adver- 
tisements appeared in the newspapers of lands for sale or 
rent in all sections of the state. The Macon Telegraph of 

1 Acts of the General Assembly, 1865-6, pp. 241-2. 
' Ibid., 1866, pp. 157-9. 

3 Ibid., p. 141. The term farmer used in this law was not interpreted 
to include tenants. See Brooks, Agrarian Revolution in Georgia, p. 32. 

* Ibid., pp. 27, 32, et seq. ; Banks, Economics of Land Tenure in 
Georgia, p. 30. 



go] LABOR AND LAND 89 

December 30, 1865, gave notice of plantations for rent, 
1,250 A. in Dougherty County, five miles from Albany, and 
in Stewart County, 2,300 A. ; and for sale, cotton lands 
were offered in four different plantations, 1,000 A., 1,250 
A., 2,500 A. and 2,200 A. The Macon Journal and Mes- 
senger of December 4, 1865, expressing regret that so many 
plantations were offered for rent or sale, urged that white 
labor from the North be secured in place of the negroes 
who would not work. In January, 1866, an owner offered 
for sale in Liberty County in the coast region, one planta- 
tion of 2,445 A. for rice and sea-island cotton and 3,118 A. 
in pine land, saying that he wished to sell because he could 
not spare time from his profession to inaugurate the free 
labor system. 1 Notices of three other plantations for sale 
or rent appeared in the same paper. In Cherokee Georgia, in 
the northwest, many farms were sold to persons from other 
sections of the state and from the North. 700 A. near 
Rome, of which 300 A. were in bottom lands, sold for 
$16,000; 160 A. of upland sold for $5,000; 480 A. in Polk 
County (upland) sold to a Boston man for $10,000; and 
in the same county 520 A. of upland to another man from 
Massachusetts brought $7,000. Near Madison two North- 
erners purchased a plantation of 2,700 A. for $12.50 and 
$20 per acre. 2 

These are only a few instances of the many plantations 
that changed hands. Where plantations did not actually 
break up into small farms during these first eighteen months 
after emancipation, many planters were able to cultivate 
only a small part of their acreage. The economy of tillage 

1 Savannah Herald, January 3, 1866. 

2 Macon Journal and Messenger, January 27, 1866, from the Rome 
Courier and Augusta Chronicle, June 5, 1866. The Milledgeville South- 
ern Recorder of November 6, 1866, contained 68 separate advertisements 
of lands for sale. Brooks, Agrarian Revolution in Georgia, p. 38. 



go RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [g 

on a large scale was ceasing to exist, for with free labor, 
when the laborers were negroes, it was impossible for an 
overseer to superintend as many hands and as much land 
as under slavery. With the system of slavery broken down 
and no new system established, negroes needed more over- 
sight and were less ready to take commands from their 
overseers, whom they regarded as hired men like them- 
selves. The problem of securing competent overseers to 
deal with freedmen in the new conditions was quite as 
great at times as the difficulty of getting field labor. Many 
planters who had cultivated several different plantations 
found it necessary to confine their attention to one, leasing 
or selling the others. 

Some thinking people felt that the South was trying to 
put new wine into old bottles in attempting to 1 work old 
plantations with free labor. They thought that the whole 
system of living must be changed to meet new conditions. 
Instead of plantations, small farms well fertilized and cul- 
tivated intensively should be the method of agriculture. J. 
D. B. DeBow, editor of the commercial review of the 
South, wrote to Governor Perry of South Carolina, as fol- 
lows, in a letter which the New York Times called signifi- 
cant of the " complete revolution effected in the South " : 1 
" The South must throw her immense uncultivated domain 
into the market at a low price, reduce the quantity of land 
held by individual proprietors, and resort to intelligent and 
vigorous measures at the earliest moment, to induce an in- 
flux of population and capital from abroad." But in 1865 
and 1866 the Southern planter did not realize the complete- 
ness of the revolution that had come upon him and tried 
vigorously though unsuccessfully to restore the essential 
features of the old order. 



1 New York Times, October 15, 16, 1865; also De Bow, Review, 
January, 1866. 



O!] LABOR AND LAND gi 

Another difficulty came from the emigration of freedmen 
to Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, where higher wages 
were offered, making planters fearful for the supply of 
labor in Georgia. At one time one hundred negroes were 
reported to have left Griffin in 1866 in care of Federal offi- 
cers, bound for farms in Arkansas, and rumors were current 
that a body of a thousand blacks under similar escort left 
Atlanta for the Mississippi Valley about the same time. 
The movement of labor to a more profitable market was 
fostered by the Freedmen's Bureau. General Tillson said 
that he had sent enough negroes out of the state to alarm 
the people and so raise wages. 1 

White immigrant labor was looked upon by many people 
in the South as the only possible solution of the labor prob- 
lem, attendant upon the emancipation of the blacks. One 
proposition was made to secure German laborers to settle 
the waste places of the state, to add to the prosperity of the 
community and still not displace the blacks; for, as the 
editor of the Macon Telegraph wrote : " The faithful negro 
must not be discarded — the South's duty is to its former 
slaves ". 2 Another Macon paper said that the South's 
greatest need was white immigrants, the more the better. 
The armies were turning loose thousands of young men, 
who should go south where fertile lands were offered for a 
song. But nine months after peace had been declared there 
seemed to be little foreign or Northern immigration, except 
traders and mechanics in towns or in the lumber business 
along the coast. 3 It was no wonder, however, that Georgia 
did not draw immigrants, since it had no free land to offer 
when there was plenty in the West. 

1 Macon Telegraph, December 29, 1865 and January 20, 1866; Augusta 
Chronicle, March 24, 1866. 

1 January 24, 1866 ; also February 16, 1866. 

3 Macon Journal and Messenger, November 28, 1865 ; June 30, 1866. 



9 2 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[92 



J. D. B. DeBow, editor of DeBoufs Review, said that 
the need of the South in the difficult transition from slave 
to free labor was in immigrant labor, to secure which the 
South should follow the example of the West and appoint 
immigration commissioners, 1 In October, 1865, a corpora- 
tion of prominent business men was formed with offices in 
Savannah to supply white labor in Georgia, This Georgia 
Land and Immigration Co., as it was called, published a 
prospectus which stated Georgia's need of white labor and 
the advantages which the state offered to white immigrants. 
To make the company self-sustaining and profitable, fees 
were to be paid by the immigrants, and commissions 
charged on the sale or rent of lands to those to whom lab- 
orers were furnished. 2 And in Augusta the Georgia Immi- 
gration Co. was organized in 1866 to furnish white labor 
for the South. Jacob R. Davis and Son advertised that 
they, as agents, were prepared to furnish promptly white 
laborers to planters who wanted hands ; operators or me- 
chanics to manufacturers; and cooks, seamstresses, nurses 
to housekeepers. 3 A notice of immigration prospects two 
months later stated that the Georgia Immigration Co. was 
expecting the arrival of over one hundred immigrants. Mr. 
Jonathan Miller, of Richmond County, was going north to 
procure more laborers, taking back with him one of the 
immigrants who had already braved so-called Southern 
atrocities. 4 

But white labor did not prove satisfactory and the at- 
tempt to make a business of importing white immigrants 

1 Letter to Governor Perry of South Carolina in the New York 
Times, October 15, 1865. 

3 Augusta Constitutionalist, October 7, 1865. 

3 Augusta Chronicle, January 31, 1866; Macon Telegraph, May 5, 



1866. 

*Ibid., March 30, 1 



866. 



9 3] LABOR AND LAND 93 

was given up in June after the company lost about three 
thousand dollars. Mr. Miller, mentioned above, related his 
experience with white immigrant labor on his plantation on 
Beech Island. At the beginning of 1866, after hiring ne- 
groes at $12.50 a month, he was forced to dismiss some 
and try white labor. For the fifteen whites that he brought 
from the North he paid passage, and as wages, agreed upon 
$12.50 a month with rations for men, and $8 for women. 
When the laborers insisted on an increase to $15 and $10 
in spite of their contract, Mr. Miller acceded to their de- 
mands. As a member of the Immigration Co., he brought 
down one hundred hands, nine of whom he kept as laborers 
on his own plantation. In a short time they, too, demanded 
more than their contract called for and became dissatisfied 
with the rations furnished them. Miller dismissed all but 
one, and came to the conclusion that whites did not work 
any better than negroes, even at higher wages and better 
rations. He gave up the business of getting laborers from 
emigration companies in the North as a bad job. 1 After 
the failure of white immigrant labor from the North, the 
possibility of coolie labor for growing cotton and rice was 
discussed, and was later put to trial along the coast. 2 

After all, it seemed that the negro was the only laborer 
who could work the plantations in the South, and greater 
willingness to work in 1866 made the planter hopeful of 
successful results later. 

Among the white people of the state, too, there was a 
movement toward emigration to the North and to South 
America. Many young men, who saw obstacles too great 
in the way of establishing themselves in the turmoil of new 
adjustments in 1865, went north where chances for business 



1 Augusta Chronicle, November 7, 1866 (supplement). 
3 Savannah News, November 8, 1866. 



94 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [94 

success seemed more favorable. In 1865 an d 1866, and even 
more after the political revolution of 1867-8, many South- 
erners, who felt that new conditions in the South were in- 
tolerable, talked much and loud about emigration to Mexico 
and Brazil. 1 To encourage emigration to Brazil, the Brazil 
Emigration Society advertised in Southern papers, offer- 
ing free passage to emigrants by the United States and 
Brazil Mail S. S. Co., and promising favors from the im- 
perial government to emigrants from the United States. Un- 
occupied public lands would be sold at 23, 46, 70 and 90 
cents per acre, with payments in five yearly installments, be- 
ginning one year after possession. The laws of Brazil 
granted exemption to immigrants from import duties on 
personal effects, implements, etc. No slaves or colored 
people would be received as immigrants. 2 But apparently 
the movement toward emigration southward was more talk 
than anything else, and few people actually left Georgia for 
Brazil. 



1 Macon Journal and Messenger, February 24, 1866. 

2 Savannah News, December i, 1866. 



CHAPTER IV 



Commercial Revival 

The readiest resource toward beginning business under 
new conditions was in the sale of cotton on hand as soon 
as avenues of trade with the North were opened. In Janu- 
ary, 1865, a limited opportunity for selling cotton was given 
to the Savannah region in control of the Federal army by 
the order of General Sherman, which allowed persons tak- 
ing the amnesty oath to sell cotton to treasury agents at 
three-fourths of the market price in New York. 1 After the 
surrender, a general opening of trade, subject to treas- 
ury regulations, in the part of the South within military 
lines was proclaimed by President Johnson on April 29, 
1865. A month later the first consignment of cotton ap- 
peared for sale to treasury agents in Savannah. 2 In Janu- 
ary, 1865, shipping made some small beginning toward re- 
opening connections with the outside world, and by May a 
partial connection with the back country was established by 
daily boats on the river between Augusta and Savannah. 
A weekly line to New York was put in operation and the 
custom house at Savannah resumed business. 3 On May 13th 

1 Gen. Sherman's Special Field Order, no. 13, Savannah, January 15, 
1865, in Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, vol. xlvii, pt. ii, 
PP- 52-3. 

* Savannah Herald, May 24, 1865 ; Hunt's Merchant Magazine, June, 
1865. 

8 New York Herald, May 6, 1865 and New York World, May 6, 1865, 
in the Townsend Library of newspaper clippings, Columbia University. 
95 [95 



9 6 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ 9 6 

the New York Herald announced that merchant ships were 
again ready to trade in Southern ports. On the 29th Gen- 
eral Grant ordered the commanding officers at . Savannah, 
Augusta and other points to give every facility for market- 
ing cotton and other produce, to make no seizure of private 
property or search for Confederate cotton, as the finances 
of the country demanded a speedy marketing of articles of 
export. 1 

It is impossible to estimate accurately the amount of 
cotton available in Georgia at the close of the war. 
Through the region of the Sherman and the Wilson raids 
there was practically none, but in South Georgia the accu- 
mulation of four years was still on hand, except what was 
consumed in home manufacture during the war. Since little 
cotton was made in 1865, at least one-half of the stock on 
hand was of the crop of 1860-61. An investigator of con- 
ditions in the South immediately after the war was in- 
formed that there was probably more cotton in Georgia at 
that time than in any other Southern state, and that the 
great bulk of Georgia's supply was in the Southwest. The 
amount on hand in forty counties of that section was esti- 
mated at about 200,000 bales. The crop raised in those 
counties in 1865 was thought to be only about 10,000 bales. 2 
Another estimate put Georgia's stock at 300,000 bales. 3 
The report of Neill Bros., an English cotton firm, reckoned 
that Georgia and Florida together had 330,000 bales, about 
half an ordinary crop. 4 

The hard terms of sale in the first two months after the 
war delayed cotton marketing and no one sold who was 

1 Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, vol. xlvii, pt. iii, p. 593. 

2 Andrews, South since the War, p. 318. 
5 Macon Telegraph, May 15, 1865. 

4 New York Times, October 17, November 23 (B. C. Truman), and 
December 12, 1865. 



97] 



COMMERCIAL REVIVAL 



97 



not farced by necessity. In New York practically no cotton 
was offered for sale until June, and then sales on govern- 
ment account, mostly Savannah cotton, brought 37^ cents 
in gold for good middling cotton. There were no private 
sales. 1 In June, notice was given by a treasury official at 
a meeting of cotton holders and warehouse merchants that 
the Federal tax of 25 per cent on cotton in the insurrection- 
ary states was withdrawn and the intervention of govern- 
ment agents was abolished. In the next month the market 
was active and quotations began to appear regularly in 
Savannah, Augusta and Macon papers. 2 In Savannah, 
middling cotton brought 38-39 in July, continuing upward 
until it reached 50 in December and January. At the end 
of 1865, when labor difficulties gave little promise of suc- 
cessful planting in the next year, speculation was active and 
cotton was held by those not forced to sell, in the expecta- 
tion that it would bring 75 cents by January. 3 But the 
Christmas season passed without the expected uprising 
among the negroes, and when they began to make contracts 
and settle down to work early in January and February, 
better prospects for a large crop in 1866 brought a fall in 
prices. Then, too, the discontinuance of the system of 
treasury agents stimulated the sale of cotton. 4 From Sep- 
tember 1, 1865, to April 11, 1866, the Savannah market re- 
ceived 201,357 bales of upland and 8,154 bales of sea-island 
cotton, most of which was exported to the North or to 
Europe. 5 

1 Savannah Herald, June 6 and 13, 1865. 

2 Augusta Constitutionalist, June 17, 1865; Hunt's Merchant Magazine, 
July, 1865. 

3 Augusta Constitutionalist, October 22, 1865. 

4 Macon Journal and Messenger, February 17, 20 and March 6, 1866. 

5 Savannah Herald, February 10, 23, March 20, April 11, 1866. 



gS RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [gg 

In cities and towns, immediately after the war, business 
began to revive with the incoming stocks of goods from 
the North as soon as the restrictions on trade were removed. 
Southern people had been forced to' do* without so many 
of the ordinary comforts of life during the four years of 
war that there was an avidity to buy when anything was 
offered for sale. Though the people were so poor that they 
had no money to pay their debts, still a stock of fine goods 
in the stores rapidly disappeared. Ten stores were doing 
business where there was formerly but one. 1 This zest for 
trade did much to raise from the stagnation of war times 
the most important cities, Savannah, Augusta, Columbus, 
and most speedily of all, Atlanta. 

Though Atlanta was practically demolished by Sherman's 
army in 1864, with fully three-fourths of the buildings in 
ruins, resurrection came immediately in the first months 
after the war. The population of the city, which had been 
about 13,000 at the beginning of the war, had increased to 
20,000 in 1866. In the fall and winter of 1865 business 
was booming. Retail stores, many of which were kept by 
Northerners, Jews and army sutlers, carried on active 
business. Rebuilding proceeded rapidly, generally with 
cheap, flimsy structures. Building material was dear, me- 
chanical labor received high wages, and rents for stores 
and dwellings were exorbitant. The trade of the city was 
one-third greater than it had ever been in its most pros- 
perous days before the war. At least 4,000 mechanics were 
at work, almost 200 stores were opened and its four rail- 
roads were taxed to their utmost capacity. Much property 
was in the market and speculation in real estate was lively. 
Many purchases of land were made by non-residents. In 
addition to retail stores there were new wholesale stores 
for the sale of groceries, hardware, crockery and dry- 

1 Milledgeznlle Federal Union, November 21, 1865. 



99] COMMERCIAL REVIVAL 99 



goods. Pressing monetary needs brought banking facilities. 
Mr. John H. James re-opened his banking business in 1865, 
and later in the same year two national banks began busi- 
ness. In these months of rapidly reviving business and 
scarce money, the cost of living was high. Retail prices, 
quoted in greenbacks, were as follows : flour, $20 per bbl. ; 
bacon, 40 cts. per lb. ; beef, 15 cts. per lb. ; corn meal, $1.25 
per bu. ; ordinary suit of clothes, $100; a pair of boots, $16. 

Of the four railroads radiating from Atlanta, the West- 
ern and Atlantic, connecting with the northwest, was in 
running order; the Atlanta and West Point to the south- 
west was being rapidly repaired after the damage it suffered 
from Wilson's raid; the Macon and Western to the 
south, which had been partially damaged, was in running 
shape. The Georgia R. R., connecting Atlanta and Augusta 
with the east, was the only one of the four avenues of com- 
munication from Atlanta that was not in passable order in 
the fall of 1865, and that was rapidly repairing its breaks. 
Since Atlanta was not the center of the great agricultural 
region of Georgia, it was not so closely dependent on the 
prosperity of the planter as were Macon and Savannah. 
Its chief business was that of distributing center for grain 
and meat from the Northwest and for manufactured goods 
from the Northeast. It also came to be the financial center 
of the state, developing strong banking interests, and served 
as central headquarters for insurance companies and large 
wholesale establishments. 1 At this time Atlanta, calling 
herself the Gate City of Georgia, was pressing forward 
as a rival to Macon as the railroad center of the state. The 
following is a picture of Atlanta in the fall of 1865 as it 

*For Atlanta after the war, see Reed, History of Atlanta, ch. xii; 
Clarke, Atlanta Illustrated, pp. 50-55; Atlanta New Era, October 9 and 
26, 1866; New York Times, November 2, 1865 ("Quondam") and 
December 3, 1865 (Truman) ; Nation, January 25, 1866 (Dennett) ; 
Reid, After the War, p. 355, et seq. 



IOO RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ IO o 

appeared to Sidney Andrews, correspondent for Boston 
and Chicago papers : 1 

From all this ruin and devastation a new city is springing 
up with marvelous rapidity. The narrow and irregular and nu- 
merous streets are alive from morning till night with drays 
and carts and hand-barrows and wagons, — with hauling teams 
and shouting men, — with loads of lumber and loads of brick 
and loads of sand, — with piles of furniture and hundreds of 
packed boxes, — with mortar-makers and hod-carriers, — with 
carpenters and masons, — with rubbish removers and house- 
builders, — with a never-ending throng of pushing and crowd- 
ing and scrambling and eager and excited and enterprising 
men, all bent on building and trading and swift fortune- 
making. Chicago in her busiest days could scarcely show such 
a sight as clamors for observation here. Every horse and 
mule and wagon is in active use. The four railroads centering 
here groan with the freight and passenger traffic, and yet are 
unable to meet the demand of the nervous and palpitating city. 
Men rush about the streets with but little regard for comfort 
or pleasure, and yet find the days all too short and too few for 
the work in hand- The sound of the saw and plane and 
hammer rings out from daylight till dark, and yet master- 
builders are worried with offered contracts which they can- 
not take. Rents are so high that they would seem fabulous 
on Lake Street, and yet there is the most urgent cry for store- 
room and office-room. . . . Atlanta seems to be the centre 
from which this new life radiates ; it is the great Exchange, 
where you will find everybody if you only wait and watch. I 
saw it with wonder, and think of it with ever-increasing 
wonder. The very genius of the West, holding in the one hand 
all its energies and in the other all its extravagances, is there ; 
not sitting in the supreme ease of settled pause, but standing in 
the nervous tension of expectant movement- What is thus 
affirmed of Atlanta is to a less extent true of twenty other 
places in that quarter of the State. 



1 Andrews, op. ext., pp. 340, 375. 



IO i] COMMERCIAL REVIVAL I0I 

Columbus, too, suffered severely just at the close of the 
war. Situated at the fall line of the Chattahoochee River, 
with good water power, it was the busiest manufacturing 
town in Georgia at the outbreak of the war, having four 
cotton mills, a paper mill and others. During the war, fac- 
tories for making war supplies sprang up and continued 
the prosperity of Columbus. As an important railroad 
center in the cotton belt it was a busy cotton market. After 
the destructive force of Wilson's raid, there was great en- 
ergy in rebuilding, but recovery in the first eighteen months 
was not so rapid as in Atlanta. In December, 1865, B. C. 
Truman reported that business was active, the hotels were 
filled with cotton buyers and sellers, many newcomers and 
Jewish traders were conspicuous. At the beginning of 
1866 the Eagle Cotton Factory, the largest of the cotton 
mills, was ready to resume business. 1 

Cotton shipping renewed business activity in Savannah 
in 1865. Early in that year a large number of Northern 
traders appeared in Savannah from New York, Boston and 
elsewhere. Whitelaw Reid, one of the many newspaper cor- 
respondents who traveled through the South to report con- 
ditions for Northern readers, observed that a dozen sutlers' 
establishments were in full blast, supplying customers with 
fashions which native merchants had lacked for four years. 
The city had large and gay-looking drug stores, rather 
meager jewelry stores with the stock of i860 still on hand, 
plenty of coarse dry-goods and " wet groceries ". Business 
of all kinds was lively, hotels were crowded though shabby 
with old furniture, broken crockery and practically no 
silver. In December, 1865, Sidney Andrews wrote: 2 

1 New York Times, December 3, 1865 (Truman) and December 31, 
1865; New York Herald, June 18, 1866 (correspondent with Steedman 
and Fullerton) ; Martin, Columbus, Ga. 

3 South Since the War, p. 366. 



102 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ IQ 2 



Business in the city has been very brisk all the fall, and many a 
merchant has had all he could do who moaned last spring for 
the " good old days ". One of them said to me yesterday, 
" There's been more done in the last six months than I be- 
lieved last winter would be done in two years." I have found 
no place in the South where early faith in the recuperative 
energies of the people has met with such large reward as here. 
Many men seem inclined to believe that the promise will not 
be kept, and are prophesying a dull season next year. Others 
are more hopeful, and say that when the railroads connecting 
with Augusta, Macon, and Thomasville are repaired, the trade 
of the city will be fifty per cent greater than ever. This latter 
view seems to me to be the correct one. 

But in 1866 prospects were worse instead of better. In many 
lines of business there was stagnation in place of the great 
activity of the year before. Business houses, without great 
capital, that had bought when prices were high, suffered 
severely from the depression. Political uncertainty kept the 
market unsteady. With the Central of Georgia R. R. badly 
crippled, Savannah's railroad connection with the rest of 
the state was in bad shape during the greater part of 1866 
and the cost of transportation was excessively high. 1 

In the latter part of the war Augusta was a depot for 
supplies brought in by blockade-runners. Great quan- 
tities of cotton and tobacco went out and clothing and 
other goods were imported. The close of the war found a 
large stock of cotton stored in Augusta, probably about 
50,000 bales, the sale of which stimulated business. Since 
Augusta was not in the path of Sherman's army it was 
spared the work of repair that Atlanta had to undergo. By 

1 In 1866 it cost $8 to carry a bale of cotton down the river from 
Augusta to Savannah, and tariff on returning freight was 8 cts. per lb. 
Savannah Herald, March 28, 1866; Wilson, Historic and Picturesque 
Savannah, p. 203 ; New York Herald, July 6, 1865 ; Trowbridge, Picture 
of the Desolated States, p. 509 ; Reid, op. cit., pp. 136-7- 



103] COMMERCIAL REVIVAL T.03 

the beginning of 1866 Northern capital had begun to find its 
way into Augusta investments. In December, 1865, the 
National Bank of Augusta was organized under the Na- 
tional Bank Act with a capital of $500,000, in which North- 
ern financiers were interested. W. B. Dinsmore, of New 
York, head of the Southern Express Company, was its first 
president. In the same year three savings banks were 
opened in Augusta. The spring season of 1866 was active, 
many traders coming in for a short stay, willing to pay any 
price to secure shops for their wares. In the fall rents 
were easier though there were no surplus houses in the city. 1 
Macon, Athens, and Milledgeville all experienced a re- 
vival in business in 1865 and 1866. Here, as elsewhere, 
many Northerners engaged in trade. Rents were high and 
business buildings and dwelling-houses were in great de- 
mand. 2 The growth in business activity between May, 
1865, and the end of 1866, is clearly indicated in the num- 
ber and variety of advertisements in the daily and weekly 
papers. In the summer of 1865 newspapers were printed on 
small sheets of two or four pages with very little adver- 
tising matter. In 1866 the daily papers in Georgia in- 
creased about one-third in size, and their pages were 
crowded with advertisements of goods to sell and of op- 
portunities to invest in new business ventures. Then as 
now newspapers derived a large part of their income from 
advertising patent medicines and quack doctors who guar- 
anteed to cure anything and everything. In all cities and 

1 Jones and Dutcher, Memorial History of Augusta, pp. 359, 363 ; 
Augusta Chronicle, July 4 and September 13, 1866; New York Herald, 
June 2, 1865; The Nation, January 25, 1866 (Dennett); Andrews, 
op. cit., p. 353. 

8 Butler, Historical Record of Macon and Central Georgia; Macon 
Telegraph, May 6, 1865; Macon Journal and Messenger, February 13, 
1866; Hull, Annals of Athens; Milledgeville Federal Union, May 1, 
1866; New York Times, November 12 and December 3, 1865 (Truman). 



IQ 4 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ IQ4 

towns there was a great increase in the number of grocery 
and dry-goods stores and retail stores of general merchan- 
dise. Business of this character gave employment as clerks 
to young men who drifted to towns after the armies dis- 
banded. Editorial comment in a Milledgeville paper called 
attention to the fact that nine out of ten young men in the 
towns went into clerking in mercantile business when there 
was great need for men with mechanical skill. 1 There were 
three or four times as many grocery stores as before the 
war, and nearly the same was true of dry-goods stores. 
" Everybody seems to have a passion for keeping store," 
wrote Sidney Andrews, " and hundreds of young men are 
going into trade who should go into agriculture. If the 
coming season brings a * smash ' in many towns, the pro- 
phecies of numerous business men will be fulfilled." 2 

Slight progress was made in manufactures in 1865 and 
1866. Some of the cotton mills that had been destroyed in 
the latter part of the war were re-opened, but in new busi- 
ness the most that was accomplished was the incorporation 
of numerous companies for manufacturing and mining pur- 
poses, which had to wait for the incoming of the requisite 
capital to allow them to grow into active existence. The 
Georgia legislature in the two sessions of 1866 gave char- 
ters to more than seventy companies, most of which never 
put their charters into use. Mining excitement continued 
in North Georgia, principally in Hall, Lumpkin, Dawson 
and White counties, and in 1866 twenty-two companies re- 
ceived charters to carry on mining operations for gold, iron, 
coal, and petroleum. 3 A Milledgeville paper remarked that 
if one-third of the incorporated companies born in the 1866 

1 Milledgeville Federal Union, April 3 and 17, 1866. 

2 South since the War, pp. 365-6. 

1 Acts of the General Assembly, 1865 and 1866, passim. 



COMMERCIAL REVIVAL I0 5 

legislature grew into active existence the state would reap 
great benefit. 1 

In i860, Georgia had a greater railroad mileage than any 
other Southern state. The increase during the decade be- 
fore the war was more than double, from 643 to 1,420 
miles. There was no 1 railway extension during the war, 
and in 1865 the increase in mileage was slight, making a 
total of 1,502 miles. 2 The war thoroughly paralyzed the 
transportation system of the South, both by destruction of 
road-bed and station equipment and by loss of rolling 
stock. 3 The chief progress of 1865 and 1866 was in re- 
pairing the damages of the last year of the war. 

The Western and Atlantic R. R., under the effi- 
cient management of Major Campbell Wallace, did satis- 
factory business, using part of its earnings to replace tem- 
porary with permanent repairs. This property of the state 
was heavily involved, with a lien upon it of about $2,000,000 
in bonds issued for its construction, $830,000 of which fell 
due in 1865, and also the bond of about $460,000 given to 
the United States for repairs made upon the road while it 
was in the possession of the Federal government. It further 
served as security for a loan of $100,000 made by the con- 
vention of 1 865. 4 

The destruction of the Central R. R. in the last year of 

1 Milled geville Federal Union, March 20, 1866. 
'Poor, Railroad Manual, 1868-9, pp. 20-21. 

3 A prominent railroad man, who was called by business from Mon- 
roe, La. to Savannah in July, 1865, traveled by the quickest route, 
from New Orleans to Chicago, Niagara Falls, New York, thence by 
steamboat to Savannah, arriving at his destination just one month after 
he began his journey, with one week in New York. Wadley, Life of 
W. M. Wadley, p. 50. 

4 Report of the Comptroller General, 1865, p. 10; Journal of the 
Convention, 1865, p. 177; Atlanta New Era, October 12, November 1, 
1866. 



105] 



io6 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ io 6 



the war reached Sherman's standard in being " thorough ". 
A report of the condition of the road in May, 1865, was 
made as follows by the Chairman of the Board of Directors : 

Mr. Schwabe has recently been over the road, and reports 
about one hundred and twenty miles between Gordon and this 
place torn up, all the warehouses except two, and all the water 
tanks destroyed. The bridge across the Oconee is burned 
down and three-fourths of the trestle work. Of the iron, about 
80 miles uninjured, the balance bent and twisted, a good deal 
of which, doubtless, can be used. In addition to this the 
Augusta and Waynesboro Road will have to be rebuilt from 
Millen to Waynesboro. 1 

At the end of 1865 the books of the Central revealed a de- 
ficit of $77,863.49 in the year's account. The process of 
repair was delayed by the difficulty of procuring and retain- 
ing labor, so forty miles of track out of the total one hun- 
dred and thirty-nine that had been broken up were still 
unrepaired in December, 1865, when the president of the 
road made his report. 2 On February 1, 1866, the last rail 
was laid and connection re-opened with Augusta by a 
branch line, and in the course of the year the road was in 
final running order. In January, 1866, Mr. Wm. Wadley, 
an important figure in the railroad development of Georgia, 
was elected President of the Central. 3 

The Macon and Western R. R. between Atlanta and 
Macon was comparatively little damaged by the invading 
armies. Although its track was torn up for twenty-two 
miles, it suffered no great loss in rolling stock and was 

better from John W. Anderson to Wm. Wadley, in Wadley, 
op. cit., p. 49. 

2 The annual report of the President of the Central of Georgia R. R. 
is published in the Macon Telegraph, January 10, 1866. 

3 Savannah Herald, February 2, 1866. 



1Q j] COMMERCIAL REVIVAL 1Q y 

prosperous enough to declare a dividend of 8 per cent on 
January 2, 1866, for the preceding twelve months. 1 

The Georgia R. R., in 1865-6, not being as heavily dam- 
aged as the Central, had a surplus at the end of the year, 
though not enough to warrant paying a dividend. Its net 
profits were $374,919 as compared with $528,144 in 1859- 
1860. In the year after the war it transported 107,276 
bales of cotton, about half its cotton traffic in 1859-60 — 
219,774 bales. 2 The encouraging results of the year from 
May 15, 1865, to March, 1866, were due to special causes; 
to the immense amount of traveling just after the war with 
the return of refugees, and to the marketing of hoarded 
cotton. These conditions stimulated traffic on all the rail- 
roads in the South, but the Georgia R. R. enjoyed more 
than its share of the business at this time, owing to the ex- 
tensive destruction of competing carriers. 3 

The business of the Southwestern R. R. suffered a con- 
siderable falling off in 1865-6 as compared with 1859-60. 
In the year before the war it carried 206,307 bales of cot- 
ton and only 87,250 in 1865-6. The Fort Gaines branch 
of the Southwestern was not in use during 1865-6, for 
iron removed from it during the war was not re- 
placed until later. In February of 1866 conditions were 
sufficiently favorable for the directors to declare a semi- 
annual dividend of 4 per cent. In March of that year the 
legislature approved the terms of consolidation of the Mus- 
cogee R. R. with the Southwestern, by which the liabilities 
were assumed and the stock taken over by the Southwestern 
at 87^.* 

1 Macon Telegraph, January 7, 1866. 
'Poor, Railroad Manual, 1868-9, P- 

' Jones and Dutcher, Memorial History of Augusta, p. 497. 
4 Hunt's Merchant Magazine, January, 1867; Poor, Railroad Manual, 
1869-70, p. 53- 



io 8 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ IG g 

The Atlanta and West Point R. R. likewise was able to 
pay a 4 per cent dividend in 1866, half its normal dividend 
before the war, though its net earnings in 1865-6 amounted 
to only $54,628 as compared with $207,118 in 1860-61. 1 

The Macon and Brunswick R. R., a project started a few 
years before the war as a rival to the Central in diverting 
some of the carrying trade from Central Georgia to the port 
of Brunswick, made little headway before 1861. 2 In 1866 
a vigorous campaign was waged by those interested in the 
railroad to secure aid from the state for its completion, 
and in December, 1866, despite the powerful opposition of 
the Central R. R., the legislature passed a bill authorizing 
the governor to place the endorsement of the state on 
Macon and Brunswick R. R. bonds to the amount of $10,000 
per mile for as many miles as were completed, and to a like 
amount per mile for every additional ten miles as completed. 
As -security the state held a prior lien on all property of the 
company. By December, 1866, fifty miles from Macon 
were completed, equipped and running, and seventy addi- 
tional miles were graded and ready for the superstructure. 3 

Work on the railroad connecting Macon and Augusta 
through Milledgeville, a branch of the Georgia R. R., pro- 
gressed during 1866, as did likewise grading for the Georgia 
Air Line from Atlanta to the northeast. Several new char- 
ters were granted in 1866 to* companies to build roads to 
act as feeders for lines already in existence — the Cherokee 
R. R. (chartered as the Cartersville and Van Wert R. R.) 
to go from Cartersville to Pryor, Ala. ; the Gainesville and 
Dahlonega R. R., to connect with the Air Line R. R. ; the 
Southern R. R. Co., from Bainbridge to Cuthbert; and the 

1 Poor, Railroad Manual, 1871-2, p. 219. 

2 Phillips, History of Transportation in the Eastern Cotton Belt, p. 359. 
3 Acts of the General Assembly, 1866. pp. 127-8; Atlanta New Era, 

November 16, 18, 1866; Augusta Chronicle, November 28, 1866. 



109] 



COMMERCIAL REVIVAL 



109 



Albany and Atlantic R. R., to a point where the Macon 
and Brunswick crosses the Atlantic and Gulf. 1 The Atlantic 
and Gulf R. R. had suffered damage to its rails for about 
twenty-five miles south of Savannah. Bridges and trestle 
work up to the Altamaha were down and had to be re- 
paired in 1865. 2 

The railroads maintained their prosperity, such as it was, 
at the expense of the traveling and shipping public. Pas- 
senger and freight rates were exorbitantly high. For in- 
stance, the fare between Milledgeville and Macon, 37 miles, 
was three dollars, or eight cents per mile. In May, 1865, 
the Central, the Southwestern and the Macon and Western 
announced a reduction in fare to five cents a mile in specie 
or national currency and double that in bills of the best 
state banks. Freight charges payable in specie or national 
currency remained at the same rate as in June, 1863, when 
they were payable in redundant Confederate currency. 3 
The oppression of heavy freight rates, just at the time when 
people were dependent on corn from the West and clothes 
from the North, stirred up a movement to secure some sort 
of regulation by the legislature. 4 But nothing was accom- 
plished toward this end and the railroads continued to 
charge what the traffic would bear. In December, 1866, 
shares of Georgia railroads were rated in the stock market 
as follows : 5 



1 Acts of the General Assembly, 1866, p. 119, et seq. 

2 New York Herald, June 27, 1865. 

5 Augusta Constitutionalist, May 28, 1865. 

4 Savannah Herald, February 2, 1866. 

5 Savannah News, December 22, 1866. 



Central R. R 

Southwestern 

Augusta and Savannah 

Georgia 

Muscogee 

Atlantic and Gulf . . . 



@ 97-99 




60-62 
47-49 



no 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[no 



Banks suffered more heavily than any other business in 
Georgia by the failure of the war. The greatest part of 
their capital had gone into Confederate and state war se- 
curities, and when the fall of the Confederacy and state 
repudiation made these worthless, with few exceptions the 
banks in the state collapsed. Those that survived the crisis 
of 1865, the Georgia R. R. and Banking Co., and the Cen- 
tral R. R. and Banking Co., had only part of their capital 
in banking operations. 1 In 1865, banking business had to 
start practically from the beginning. In the first term of 
the legislature more than twenty banking corporations were 
chartered, besides numerous building and loan associations. 
The number of savings banks showed a hopefulness that 
the people of Georgia would soon have something to save. 
By the end of 1866 nine national banks had organized in 
Georgia under the National Banking Act, with a paid-in 
capital of $1,700,000 and a note circulation of $1,1 24,000. 2 

Much Northern capital came to revive Georgia industry. 
In November, 1865, Truman observed that Northerners 
lent money freely to public institutions. Corporations had 
comparatively little difficulty in getting supplies, partly on 
time. 3 And in the acts incorporating new banking, manu- 

1 Macon Telegraph, January 30, 1866; Augusta Chronicle, February 
14, 1866. In January, 1866 the notes of the leading banks in Georgia 
were rated as follows : 

Central R. R. and Banking Co. 95 Bank of Fulton 20 

Georgia R. iR. and Banking Co. 93 Bank of Columbus 15 

Marine Bank 70 Bank of Commerce 10 

Bank of Middle Georgia 70 Planters Bank 10 

Bank of Savannah 40 Farmers & Mechanics Bank . . 10 

Bank of Athens 25 Merchants and Planters Bank. . 10 

Southwestern R. R. bank 25 Bank of the Empire State ... 10 

Bank of Augusta 25 State Bank 10 

Bank of the State of Georgia. . 22 Timber Cutters Bank 5 

' Hunt's Merchant Magazine, December, 1866. 

* New York Times, November 23, 1865. 



Ill] 



COMMERCIAL REVIVAL 



III 



facturing and other companies appear the names of many 
residents of Northern states. There was some pressure on 
the legislature to amend the existing liability and usury 
laws so as to encourage the investment of outside capital. 1 
In December, 1866, the legislature repealed the war meas- 
ure forbidding aliens to hold property in Georgia. 2 

With the depreciation of bank-notes and the worthlessness 
of Confederate currency the shortage in a circulating med- 
ium was a great obstacle in the way of reviving business. Just 
after the surrender, returning soldiers had no money what- 
ever. A card of buttons or a paper of pins could more 
readily buy a meal on the way than a pocket full of Con- 
federate notes. 3 In the towns where Federal soldiers were 
stationed, greenbacks got readily into circulation when army 
pay-day came round. In the summer of 1865 newspapers 
notified their subscribers that, in the lack of a proper cir- 
culating medium, wheat-flour, meal, bacon, lard, butter and 
other articles of produce would be received at market prices 
in payment for subscriptions. 4 The movement of the cotton 
crop northward was the means of bringing much-needed 
currency to the South. 

The total public debt of Georgia, reported by the comp- 
troller in 1865, amounted to something over $20,000,000, 
but of this a little more than $18,000,000, considered as 
war debt, was repudiated by the constitutional convention 
of 1865 under pressure from Washington, leaving to the 
state a recognized indebtedness of about $2,ooo,ooo. 5 As 

1 Macon Journal and Messenger, November 28, 1865 ; Augusta 
Chronicle, January 10, 30, 1866 and February 28, 1866. 

2 Acts of the General Assembly, 1866, p. 1. 

3 Andrews, War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, p. 201. 

* Savannah Herald, May 22, 1865; Augusta Constitutionalist, July 16, 
1865. 
5 Supra, p. 29. 



112 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[lI2 



means of income in 1865 the state had practically nothing. 
All the earnings of its railroad were consumed in repairs, 
its railroad and bank stock brought in no dividends, and so 
little of the taxable property was able to produce an income 
in the first few months of re-adjustment that heavy taxes 
would mean bankruptcy. When the legislature met in No- 
vember, 1866, the State treasury was in arrears for the ex- 
penses of the provisional government, for the convention of 
1865, for the reorganized government, for repairs on 
the Western and Atlantic R. R., and for food supplies pro- 
vided to relieve destitute people in the state. 1 The first 
legislature of 1865-6 authorized the governor to meet the 
ordinary obligations of the state by issuing mortgage bonds 
on the Western and Atlantic R. R., and by negotiating tem- 
porary loans in the meantime. Loans for three or four 
months were executed in New York at 7 per cent by both 
Provisional Governor Johnson and Governor Jenkins, and 
were paid in full at maturity. The issue of bonds was de- 
layed for a time to allow Georgia's credit to appreciate, so> 
that the state might not be forced to> sell its bonds lower 
than 90. The $500,000 five-year bonds, authorized by the 
convention, were not popular and only $30,000 of these 
were issued. The legislature in March, 1866, authorized 
mortgage bonds on the state road as follows : 2 



Bonds ordered by the convention and authorized by the 

legislature $500,000 

To meet appropriations of the legislature and repairs on W. & 

A. R. R 1,500,000 

For the payment of the Federal tax of 1861 600,000 

To fund past due bonds and coupons 830,000 

To purchase corn for the destitute 200,000 



1 Salaries of the provisional governors were paid by the United States 
government out of the army contingency fund. 

2 Acts of the General Assembly, 1865-6, pp. 18-20. 



\ 



H3] COMMERCIAL REVIVAL H3 

When the Federal government through the Secretary of 
the Treasury refused to sanction the assumption of the Fed- 
eral tax by the state, the issue of $600,000 was diverted to 
create a fund for exchanging or redeeming old bonds due 
in 1868, 1869, 1870. 1 With these bonds issued, together 
with bonds owing as part of the state's subscription to the 
Atlantic and Gulf R. R., amounting to $134,500, and $2,- 
676, 500 issued before the war, not yet due, Georgia's bonded 
indebtedness at the end of 1866 amounted to $5,971,000. 
Of this $675,500 was due in the following four years. 2 
Georgia bonds stood well in the market, rather better than 
the securities of other Southern states. In December, 1866, 
new Georgia 7's were rated at 89-91 ; old Georgia 7's at 
88-89 5 an d old Georgia 6's at 75-77.® 

The cash balance in the treasury of $5,201,086.18, most 
of which was in Confederate currency, was worthless, with 
the exception of $44,750 in U. S. currency. Other assets 
of the state were of doubtful value. Its holding of $183,- 
300 in stock in the Bank of the State of Georgia and $19,- 
000 in the Bank of Augusta were valueless, $18,600 in 
the Georgia R. R. and Banking Co. was still good, and 
likewise $700,000 in the Atlantic and Gulf R. R., though 
the latter was not worth its face value since the stock was 
below par. 4 

The first legislature of the reorganized state government 
dealt lightly in taxes, A general ad valorem property tax 
to produce $350,000 was levied for 1866 in addition to the 
specific taxes — a poll tax of one dollar and various occupa- 

1 Acts of the General Assembly, 1866, p. 16. 

2 The message of Governor Jenkins to the legislature gives a summary 
of the condition of the state finances. Journal of the House of Rep- 
resentatives, 1866, pp. 10^15. 

8 Savannah News, December 22, 1866. 

4 Report of the Comptroller General, 1865, p. 14. 



II4 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ II4 

tion taxes as customary before the war. Unpaid taxes for 
1864 an d 1865 were remitted. 1 The next session of the 
legislature in 1866 increased the general tax levy to pro- 
duce $500,000 in 1867, with the usual poll and other specific 
taxes. To meet the difficulty of the non-payment of poll 
tax by the freedmen, the tax act of 1866 bore a provision 
that the employer should pay for an employee who had not 
paid and who had no property to levy on, the employer to 
deduct the amount from the wages of the employee. 2 

Of the direct tax of $20,000,000 levied by the United 
States in 1861 and apportioned among the states, $584,- 
367.33 was due from Georgia. In June, 1865, tax commis- 
sioners were appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury 
and work toward collection was begun in various Southern 
states. The legislature of 1865-6 assumed for the state 
the obligation which the United States put upon the citizens 
of the state, but such action was disallowed by the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury. Then the legislature passed an act, 
authorizing the governor to arrest collection of so much of 
the state tax as was levied on lands in the state, if the 
United States government proceeded to collect tax from 
land owners. After about $82,000 had been collected in 
Georgia the Secretary of the Treasury ordered, August 3, 
1865, that the collection of the direct tax be suspended, and 
this was not resumed. 3 

A matter of great importance, the payment of debts con- 
tracted by private individuals and corporations during the 
war, came before both sessions of the assembly in 1866 
and became one of the chief issues in the convention in 

1 Acts of the General Assembly, 1865-6, pp. 253-5. 

2 Ibid., 1866, p. 164. 

3 Ibid., 1865-6, p. 256; New York World, May 4, 1865 (Townsend 
Library) ; Secretary of the Treasury, Report of the Finances, 1866, p. 
62. 



115] COMMERCIAL REVIVAL j j 5 

1867-8. In the first session after the war the legislature 
passed a Relief Act, suspending levy and sale under execu- 
tion for debts incurred prior to June 1, 1865, provided one- 
fourth of the debt be paid annually. At the next session 
in December, 1866, a second act was passed over the gov- 
ernor's veto by large majorities in both houses, which pro- 
hibited levy and sale, with the proviso that one-third might 
be levied on after January 1, 1868, one-third in January, 
1869, and the remainder in January, 1870. 1 

The year and a half immediately after the war was a 
period of attempted recovery in commerce and industry, with 
little in the way of real progress. The ideal was to go back 
to the condition of i860. The transportation problem was 
to repair the damage of war; banking had to start from 
the beginning; manufactures developed but little. Trading, 
wholesale and retail, mercantile business in cities and towns, 
was the one industry in which the activity of 1865-6 sur- 
passed that of i860. The state, like private corporations, 
had to meet the difficulty of bearing extraordinarily large 
expenditures with limited resources of revenue. Upon pub- 
lic and private enterprise alike the results of war had at 
once enormously increased demands and cut off sources of 
supply. 



1 Acts of the General Assembly, 1865-6, p. 241 ; 1866, p. 157. 



CHAPTER V 

Social Re-adjustment 

1865 and 1866 were lean years for Georgia people. 
Though some few came out of the war rather richer than 
they went into it, poverty was the general condition among 
the great majority. Destitution in the parts of the state 
that had been ravaged by the armies was extreme. A tra- 
veler from Chattanooga to Atlanta in October, 1865, de- 
clared that there was not as much food growing in the whole 
region as on an ordinary farm. 1 In the summer of 1865 a 
Federal officer conducted an investigation of conditions in 
thirteen counties in North Georgia, adjacent to Atlanta. In 
these counties 5,768 families were reported to be absolutely 
destitute, and only 64 families had any surplus in food sup- 
plies. The people were doing little to ward off starvation ; 
shiftless, lazy, and unwilling to work, whites and blacks 
alike. 2 The freedmen preferred to hang around sunny cor- 
ners rather than plough in the field. Young white men, too, 
appeared unwilling to buckle down to work when there was 
the greatest need of it. 3 In some of the northern counties 
above Athens people took to " bushwhacking ", plundering 
and stealing, as the easiest means of getting a living. To 
provide food in the impoverished parts of the state the 

1 New York Times, October 14, 1865. 

2 Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, vol. xlix, pt. ii, pp. 
1061-2. 

8 Macon Journal and Messenger, November 25, 1865. 

116 [116 



117] SOCIAL RE-ADJUSTMENT l r 7 

legislature in 1866 advanced $200,000; and the North, too, 
where public meetings were held to raise funds for the des- 
titute people of the South, lent a hand to relieve distress. 1 

Not only were the poor poorer, but many who had been 
rich were hard pressed to get the means of ordinary liv- 
ing. Howell Cobb, for example, before the war was consid- 
ered one of the richest men in Georgia. He owned several 
large, fertile plantations, and over a thousand slaves; and 
in addition to his planting interests he had a lucrative law 
practice. The following letters, addressed by him to his 
wife, are indicative of the hard financial condition in which 
many formerly prosperous men found themselves after the 
war : 

Macon, 24 November, 1865. 

My Dear Wife, 

I am sticking close to my office and books, with the ardor 
of a new beginner. The " nibbles " continue and I have no 
fears that you will be driven to the necessity of opening a day 
school. We refused a fee of three hundred dollars from Mr. 
G. B. Lamar, who wanted to employ us in a big case. He 
wanted our services, and we wanted his money, but the trouble 
was he wanted a thousand dollars worth of work for three 
hundred, and that we are not able to stand. If he raises his 
sights to the proper point, we may yet serve him and our- 
selves. 2 

Macon, 7 December, 1865. 

My dear Wife, 

Nothing of interest has occurred since I last wrote to you- 
Everything moves on in a quiet way. We have some indica- 
tions of business in our office; and if constant attendance and 
close attention to business will bring in more, we shall get it. 
Two fees, — one of five hundred dollars and another of two 

1 New York Times, October 17, November 14, 22, 1865. 

2 MS. Howell Cobb Correspondence. 



H8 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ n 8 

hundred, with some smaller ones, have been ensured, and I 
doubt not, others will follow in due season. 1 

But not everyone was poorer by reason of the war. 
Some few prospered exceedingly by the industrial activity 
of war time. Rolling-mills, foundries and factories for war 
supplies coined money for their owners, who were shrewd 
enough to invest their earnings in some other form than 
Confederate or state bonds or bank stock. Speculators made 
big profits in food supplies when markets were short and 
uncertain. 2 By May, 1866, more than twelve hundred citi- 
zens of Georgia had received special pardons for their con- 
nection with the rebellion on the ground that they were 
excluded from the general amnesty by being worth more 
than $20,000. In this list are the names of a number of 
men prominent in public life, C. J. Jenkins, Joshua Hill, 
and Linton Stephens, for instance. 3 

One of the significant changes that have come in social 
classes in Georgia since the war is the position of social and 
political leadership achieved by men engaged in trade and 
commerce. Before the war prestige was generally from 
landed wealth or professional distinction. This shifting in 
the basis of dignity and importance in the community was 
beginning to show itself in 1865 and 1866, though its evi- 
dences are more striking in the later period of reconstruc- 
tion and after. City life, too, gained in distinction, and a 
change was evident in the relative influence of important 
cities and towns on social and political conditions. Re-ad- 
justment in the old social order, brought about by the break- 
ing up of the land system and the growth of new economic 

1 This letter is published by U. B. Phillips, Annual Report of the 
American Historical Association, 191 1, vol. ii, p. 672. 

2 Avery, History of the State of Georgia, p. 315. 
8 House Exec. Doc., 39 C, 1 S., no. 99. 



ng] SOCIAL RE-ADJUSTMENT ng 

interests, was furthered by the political measures of Presi- 
dent Johnson's reconstruction policy. His exceptions from 
amnesty threw former leaders out of the running for a 
time, and gave more chance to the middle class than it had 
ever before had. While the period immediately after the 
war marks decided progress in the rise of a middle class 
in social and political power, still this shifting of social 
values did not begin with the end of the war, and the down- 
fall of the so-called " slave oligarchy ". Its source lies 
further back. Georgia had never been thoroughly aristo- 
cratic in its controlling elements, and certainly before the 
war great changes had taken place in making way for the 
yeoman. 1 The election to the governorship in 1857 of "Joe" 
Brown, the up-state country judge and farmer, whose ap- 
peal was to the " plain man ", is significant of the deep- 
lying social changes at work. With the shifting of the 
social, came also the shifting of sectional lines of leader- 
ship. More and more did the up-state country grow in 
dominating power at the expense of the older, more conser- 
vative, lowland region. 

Before the war Georgia had no public school system, and 
not until 1866 did a scheme for general education at public 
expense become law. The state's contributions to education 
before 1865 were through its support of the University of 
Georgia at Athens and through its fund for the education 
of poor children. Schools were privately supported and 
managed. The educational fund of the state was distributed 
among counties pro rata, and parents who could not pay 
tuition for their children sent them to private schools at 
the expense of the county. In 1852 the legislature set apart 

1 Avary (ed.) Recollections of Alex. H. Stephens, pp. 421-3. Witness 
the strength of the Democratic party in Georgia as against the aris- 
tocratic Whig party, even before the slavery controversy scattered 
the Southern Whigs after 1850. See Phillips, Georgia and State Rights. 



12 o RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ I2 q 

as a Poor School Fund the dividends from bank stock 
owned by the state in the Bank of the State of Georgia, 
the Bank of Augusta, and the Georgia R. R. and Banking 
Co. In 1858 the fund was increased by an annual appro- 
priation of $100,000 from the earnings of the Western and 
Atlantic R. R., to be divided among the counties according 
to the number of white children between the ages of eight 
and eighteen. At the same time the legislature added to the 
fund the annual interest on new bonds which the governor 
might issue in lieu of bonds which were redeemed. 1 

In 1865 there were no bank dividends and the earnings 
of the state road were diverted to other purposes, so the 
whole fund for education was only $23,355, interest on the 
public debt redeemed since 1859. 2 Since many teachers in 
various counties received no pay in 1865, the legislature of 
1865-6 authorized justices of the inferior court of each 
county to issue certificates of indebtedness at 6 per cent in- 
terest from January 1, 1866, due a, year later. The rate of 
payment for teachers instructing beneficiaries of the Poor 
School Fund was not to be less than seven cents per day for 
each scholar. 3 

The establishment of a system of common schools was 
urged by Governor Brown several years before the war. 
In his message to the legislature in 1858 he suggested that a 
school fund should be established for common schools by 
the issue of new bonds as the standing debt was paid off, 
until the fund should amount to $4,000,000. The legisla- 
ture did not act upon the plan proposed by the governor, 
though it did increase the Poor School Fund by $100,000. 4 

1 Report of the Comptroller General, 1865, p. 23. 

2 Ibid., pp. 23-4. 

* Acts of the General Assembly, 1865-6, p. 77. By Act of December, 
the maximum charge was fixed at sixteen cents a day for each pupil. 

4 Fielder, Life and Times and Speeches of Joseph E. Brown, pp. 
H7-5I. 



I2i] SOCIAL RE-ADJUSTMENT I2 i 

In the first session of the legislature after the war, bills for 
the establishment of common schools were introduced, but 
the time of the assembly at this session was devoted to 
pressing temporary measures of rehabilitation, and no con- 
structive plan of permanent progress was considered until 
the second session in November and December, 1866. In 
the first session, however, the House appointed a committee 
of sixteen to digest plans for a common school system and 
to report to the next session of the General Assembly; and 
the Senate, likewise, appointed a committee on Public Edu- 
cation and Free Schools. 1 In the second session, on No- 
vember 15, 1866, the special committee of the Senate pre- 
sented a report in the shape of a bill, which was made a 
special order for November 26th, and passed on that day. 
In the House on December 12th the Senate bill was 
amended by the clause to postpone operation until January 
1, 1868, and passed by a close vote, 62 to 58. The vote in 
the Senate, also, was close. A motion to reconsider was 
lost by 18 to 12. 2 On December 12th, the governor signed 
the bill, entitled, " An Act to provide for Education, and 
to establish a general system of Georgia schools." 3 It pro- 
vided for a thorough-going system of common schools, with 
a state superintendent appointed by the governor, a commis- 
sioner for each county, appointed by the grand jury of the 
superior court of the county, and three trustees in each dis- 
trict of the county, elected by the qualified voters in the 
district. Free instruction in the Georgia schools was of- 
fered to " any free white inhabitant being a citizen of the 
United States and of this state, and residing within the 

1 Journal of the House of Representatives, 1865-6, p. 293. Journal 
of the Senate, 1865-6, pp. 23, 103. 

1 Journal of the House of Representatives, 1866, pp. 111, 378; Journal 
of the Senate, 1866, pp. 120, 178, 179, 186, 418. 

8 Acts of the General Assembly, 1866, pp. 58-65. 



1 



122 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ I22 

limits of any county or school district organized under this 
Act, between the ages of 6 and 21 years, and any disabled 
and indigent soldier of this state under 30 years of age." 
Such public schools were to be supported by a county tax, 
levied by the inferior court at a per cent (not over 100 
per cent) on the state tax, added to the share each county 
would receive from the state educational fund. The last 
section of the Education Bill contained the important pn> 
viso, "this act shall have nor force nor effect until after the 
first of January, 1868." 

Postponement for a year was decided upon because the 
people of the state had not sufficiently recovered from the 
poverty brought upon them by the war to enable them to 
bear extra taxes for education. Before January 1, 1868, 
when the plan for a common school system in Georgia was 
to go into effect, a new revolution was brought upon 
Georgia by the reconstruction measures of 1867, and no 
general system of education organized by the state was es- 
tablished until 1873, and then by the plan of the recon- 
struction legislature of 1870. In view of this carefully 
planned scheme for a common school system, made law in 
December, 1866, but prevented from execution by circum- 
stances over which the people of Georgia had no control, 
it is impossible to accept for Georgia the general conclusion 
so often stated that the public school system in the South 
was entirely the work of the reconstruction of 1868. 

The University of Georgia at Athens was closed in Oc- 
tober, 1863, when threatened invasion of the state took 
away members of the faculty and students to form part 
of the state troops and the home guard. After 1863 its 
dormitory buildings were occupied by families of refugees 
from New Orleans, Mobile, and Savannah, and no session 
was held until January, 1866. Then the campus was over- 
grown with weeds, the chapel and dormitories had been de- 



123] SOCIAL RE-ADJUSTMENT I2 $ 

faced by Federal soldiers, who had used the buildings as 
quarters for a garrison. When the university re-opened, 
seventy-eight students appeared, most of whom had gone 
through the war and many of whom were grown men. En- 
rollment for the next year was increased by ninety-three 
maimed soldiers, who received their education at state ex- 
pense. 1 In December, 1866, the legislature provided that 
$300 should be paid to the University and to several other 
colleges for each indigent maimed soldier which the insti- 
tution received. The recipient of the benefit was to pledge 
himself to teach as many years in Georgia as he may have 
been in college. 2 The smaller denominational colleges had 
greater difficulty in recovering and did not get on their feet 
again until 1867 and later. 

In December, 1866, the legislature passed an act to pro- 
vide for a college of agricultural and mechanic arts, ap- 
propriating $2,000 for the purpose in order to take advan- 
tage of the Federal grants of public lands for agricultural 
schools, made under the acts of July 2, 1862, and April 14, 
1864. 3 

The organization of public school systems in the cities 
of Georgia made no headway in 1865 and 1866, except in 
Savannah, where a " Board of Public Education for the 
City of Savannah to superintend the education of white 
children from sixteen to eighteen years, was established in 
March, 1866. In December of the same year the act was 
amended to extend authority over Chatham County as well. 

1 Hull, Historical Sketch of the University of Georgia, p. 73, et seq.; 
Hull, Annals of Athens, p. 302, et seq. 

1 Acts of the General Assembly, 1866, pp. 143-4. 

3 Ibid., pp. 64-5. In 1872 the state entered into a contract with the 
trustees of the University of Georgia by which the State College 
of Agriculture was to be established as part of the University. 



I2 4 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ I2 4 

During the first year two schools were opened with ten 
teachers and an enrollment of 520 pupils. 1 Soon after the 
surrender, in May, 1865, General Grover in command in 
Savannah attempted to help in providing school facilities 
for the white children of the city, since negroes were other- 
wise cared for. Of 2,000 white children of school age, only 
600 were in school. General Graver's order to establish 
three free schools for white children in Savannah was dis- 
approved by his superior officer, General Gillmore, who 
commanded that all schools provided should offer equal 
facilities to blacks and whites, 2 

The education of negroes was left to the Freedmen's 
Bureau and to Northern philanthropy. Some Southerners 
thought that since emancipation was a fact, the wisest 
policy for the South was to educate the negro so as to make 
him able to live up to that state of freedom into which it 
had pleased the North to call him. But this was the opinion 
of a small minority. The usual arguments against educa- 
tion as unfitting to the condition of hewers of wood and 
drawers of water were applied to their former slaves by 
most people of Georgia. Education of negroes, they 
thought, would be labor lost, resulting in injury instead of 
benefit to the working classes. C. H. Howard, of the 
Freedmen's Bureau, reporting in December, 1865, wrote : 

Existing theories concerning the education of laborers and the 
prejudices against the blacks are such as absolutely to prevent 
the establishment of schools for the freedmen even though the 

x Acts of the General Assembly, 1865-6, pp. 78-90; Wilson, Historic 
and Picturesque Savannah, p. 211; Report of the Board of Education 
of Savannah, 1860-70, p. 7. 

2 Correspondence between Gen. Grover and Gen. Gillmore, Official 
Records of the War of the Rebellion, series i, vol. xlvii, pt. iii, pp. 
284, 418, 466-7, 492-3, 525, 568-9. 



SOCIAL RE-ADJUSTMENT 12 $ 

expense be paid by benevolent associations of the North, and 
the many successful schools now in operation would be broken 
up in most places on the withdrawal of the government 
agencies. The same general observation will apply to all mis- 
sionary work by Northern agents; and from special inquiry 
and investigation of this subject, I am convinced that very 
little in the way of moral and religious instruction for the 
freed people is to be expected at present from the members 
and ministers of the Southern churches. On the other hand, 
it is for the interest of the whites for these agencies to remain, 
and the better class of the thinking men expressed themselves 
unhesitatingly in favor of it. 1 

For 1865 the Freedmen's Bureau reported 66 schools, 66 
teachers and 3,500 pupils in Georgia. The New England 
Freedmen's Aid Society and the American Missionary As- 
sociation supported 62 schools for freedmen, which had 89 
teachers and 6,600 pupils. In 1865-6 the American Mis- 
sionary Association and the New England Branch of the 
Union Commission and the Freedmen's Aid Society of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church together spent $20,000 for 
negro* education in Georgia. The aid societies usually fur- 
nished teachers while the Bureau provided buildings. 2 La 
some places there were self-supporting schools with colored 
teachers, but these did not report to the Freedmen's Bureau. 
In Savannah, out of 1,600 colored children, 1,200 were in 
school and 350 of these were in the schools of the Savan- 
nah Educational Association, an organization supported by 
the colored people and employing negro' teachers. 3 Freed- 
men's schools in Macon, too, were flourishing, with 1,000 
pupils and 11 teachers. The schools were provided with 

1 Joint Committee on Reconstruction, 1866, pt. iii, p. 47. 

2 Report of E. A. Ware, Superintendent of Education for Georgia, 
Freedmen's Bureau, in the Journal of the Georgia Senate, 1868, pp. 78-9. 

s Trowbridge, Picture of the Desolated States, pp. 490, 509. 



125] 



126 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ I2 6 

teachers, women from the North, by the American Mission- 
ary Association. There were four morning schools, one in 
each African church, one afternoon school for more ad- 
vanced pupils, and a night school for those of all ages. 
The freedmen paid for their own books and for fuel and 
light. 1 In Augusta, schools were under the direction of 
the Education Department of the Freedmen's Bureau. At a 
meeting of the inferior court of the county, the judge 
stated that the court was considering means to establish free 
schools for colored people, and asked if the negroes would 
accept their aid. In reply, some negroes objected that they 
were too poor to pay taxes and the Northern people gave 
them education free; other negro speakers favored the 
proposition. In Atlanta a hospital and several good schools 
were in operation, sustained chiefly by benevolent associa- 
tions in the North. In South Georgia, too, the Bureau was 
active in providing school facilities for the negroes. In 
Quitman, Valdosta and Thomasville vacant buildings were 
rented, the negroes furnishing labor to make necessary re- 
pairs. In Thomasville the Bureau representative proposed 
to the white people that an academy building be used for 
the negroes until another could be made ready. But the 
white citizens objected, knowing that prejudice was such 
that the white people would never consent to send their 
children again to a school once used for negroes. Thomas- 
ville had a school for colored children taught by a colored 
resident before the Freedmen's Bureau took hold, as had 
Albany, also, where the teacher was a young woman from 
New York. In Southwest Georgia the agent of the 
Bureau heard of two planters who wished to establish 
schools for colored children on their plantations. In these 
plantation schools, by no means as rare as the Freedmen's 

1 Ibid., pp. 465-6; Macon Telegraph, February 7, 1866. 



127] 



SOCIAL RE-ADJUSTMENT 



127 



Bureau agent thought, the expense was borne most fre- 
quently by the planters, the parents of the pupils paying a 
nominal sum monthly in money or provisions to the teacher. 
In Andersonville, too, a school was established for negroes 
in a Confederate building, where a sergeant of an Ohio 
regiment taught adults in the evening. 1 

In the early years after the war negro children were 
very much better off as to educational opportunities than 
were poor white children. To the blacks was extended the 
helping hand of Northern sympathy and the aid of a na- 
tional bureau; but the poverty of his own father and the 
impotence of the state let the white child abide in ignorance. 

Two important problems of social adjustment, the atti- 
tude of Southern people toward Northern immigrants and 
the treatment of the blacks by the white population, were 
subjects of investigation before the congressional committee 
on reconstruction in 1866. As to the former question, sev- 
eral witnesses called before the committee expressed the 
opinion that Northern residents in Georgia were dependent 
on the presence of Federal troops for the safety of their 
persons and property. 2 Still they had but few instances of 
maltreatment of Northerners to relate. Whether it was 
due to the presence of troops or not, the fact remains that 
many Northerners did take up residence in Georgia imme- 
diately after the war, and managed to preserve their lives 
and to secure some property. In some districts, cases were 
known where newcomers from the North were scared off 
by threats. In the newspapers were occasional harsh words 
about new Yankee residents, but to every one item of this 
tone were twenty clamoring for Northerners to come and 

1 Joint Committee on Reconstruction, 1866, pt. iii, pp. 43-6 (Report 
of C. H. Howard) ; Augusta Chronicle, April 26, July 1, 1865. 

* Joint Committee on Reconstruction, 1866, pt. iii, pp. 7-8, 39, 47, 
(Test.: Gen. Hatch, Gen. C. H. Howard). 



I2 8 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ I2 8 

bring their business interests to the state. In Georgia to-day 
many persons who came from the North soon after the war 
to engage in business say that they were never maltreated 
or threatened in any way. Except in some few districts 
the personal safety of Northerners was not endangered. 
But socially their position was far from agreeable. Com- 
plaints were frequent that Northerners were not received 
in the homes of their neighbors. Women, who ruled the 
social world, were stricter than men in their aloofness from 
the Yankees and did not hesitate to show their displeasure 
by drawing their skirts aside to keep from brushing against 
the offensive Northerners on the streets, or by lowering a 
parasol to protect themselves from the distasteful gaze of a 
Yankee. 

Ostracism of Northerners was greater in Savannah and 
the lowland region of Georgia, where social life was more 
conservative and more aristocratic than in the upper part 
of the state. An Atlanta paper said that it would welcome 
Northerners who were friendly to the South, though it 
wanted no hypocrites or radicals to' come, and criticised 
Savannah people as acting in the wrong in ostracising new- 
comers simply because they were Northerners. 1 Much of 
the prejudice against receiving Northerners socially was 
doubtless due to the fact of their being Northerners, but in 
addition to that was the fact that many of the newcomers 
were persons who had no social position in their homes in 
the North, and in their persons bore no evidence of special 
presentability to make them eligible to social groups in 
Georgia. The dislike of Northerners was manifested often 
on occasions that gave an effect of fantastic incongruity. 
Thus, in Washington, Georgia, two Yankees entered a 
church and sat in a pew with a prominent young man of 



1 Atlanta New Era, October 20, 1866. 



129] 



SOCIAL RE-ADJUSTMENT 



i2g 



the town, who straightway rose and changed his seat. In 
the same town in June, 1865, during a revival meeting at a 
Methodist church, a former Confederate soldier, kneeling to 
profess his faith, was perceptibly chagrined to find a North- 
erner kneeling beside him. A sympathetic friend of the 
Southerner remarked that he was sorry to see a good Con- 
federate going to heaven in such bad company. 1 The young 
women who came from the North to teach in schools for 
negroes, " Yankee school-marms were special objects of 
ostracism. It was often hard for them to secure board in 
white families, so they had to live with negroes whether 
they wished to or not. 2 

More serious than the relation of Southerners to North- 
erners was the question of race adjustment. Though there 
were many difficulties, the race problem in the greater part 
of Georgia, as the result of emancipation, was not acute 
in 1865-6. The immediate problem of emancipation was 
that of labor. But in 1867 and 1868, when the reconstruc- 
tion program of Congress attempted to subvert the whole 
social order of the Southern states by making the former 
masters impotent and putting the instrument of power into 
the hands of the former slaves, and keeping it there by 
military force, then, indeed, came a social problem that the 
South and the nation have not yet in half a century been able 
to solve. The Southern white man did not consider that 
constitutional emancipation changed a particle the natural 
inferiority of the blacks to the white people. Freedom sim- 
ply meant that the negro was no longer the property of an 
individual to be bought and sold, cared for and used by 
him. Natural inferiority of race and long habit made the 
negro dependent on the white. No legal measure could 



1 Andrews, War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, pp. 264, 288. 
s Henry County Weekly, Memorial Number, April 24, 1008. 



X^O RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [^30 

suddenly infuse into a weak, childish, irresponsible people, 
independence and competence. An act of Congress might 
affect the law of property, but it could not immediately alter 
social and psychological traits in any people. Slavery was 
the proper condition of the blacks, and even though the 
mechanism was destroyed, the principles on which it rested, 
inferiority of negroes to whites, incompetence to work with- 
out direction and compulsion, irresponsibility in protecting 
and caring for themselves, still remained. This was the 
point of view of the representative Southerner. Though 
some slaveholders welcomed emancipation as a relief from 
their burdens, this attitude was exceptional, and most South- 
erners accepted emancipation only of necessity. But how- 
ever unwelcome emancipation was, Southerners who had 
owned slaves felt no ill will toward the irresponsible blacks 
who had freedom thrust upon them. Among the whites, 
however, who had owned no slaves, the " poor whites 
hostility toward the negro was felt and expressed. The 
emergence of the negro as a free laborer created a rival to 
the poor white man from which slavery had in a great meas- 
ure protected him. Though there was, as a rule, no change 
in the friendly relations of the slave owner and the f reed- 
men toward each other in 1865, altered circumstances inten- 
sified the mutual hostility of the poor whites and the ne- 
groes. This class of the white population feared the negro 
and hated him, whereas the negro felt and showed pro- 
found contempt for " poor white trash ". 

To this animosity, intensified a hundred-fold when the 
political enfranchisement of the negro in 1867 aggravated 
the difficulty that already existed, were due many of the dis- 
turbances between whites and blacks in sections where blacks 
were few or evenly balanced in number with the whites. 
Fair-minded travelers from the North, like B. C. Truman, 
J. R. Dennett, correspondent for the Nation, and the cor- 



131] SOCIAL RE-ADJUSTMENT 

respondent for the New York Herald with Generals Steed- 
man and Fullerton, all agreed that in general the relations 
of the white people and the negroes toward each other were 
friendly; that it was a small minority, mostly of the non- 
slave-holding class, that hated the freedmen and caused dis- 
turbances. 1 Truman observed that negroes were treated 
better by Southerners than by Northerners who went south. 
Northerners who took up farms or plantations found them- 
selves helpless in dealing with negroes and were less patient 
with them than were those who were accustomed to negro 
ways. In her diary 7 kept during 1865, Miss Fannie An- 
drews, of Washington, Ga., expressed indignation at the 
way the Yankees treated the negroes whom they impressed 
into service from her father's plantation. They put at 
hard work one old darky. Uncle Watson, who had been 
humored and had never done anything but the very lightest 
work when he felt like it. 2 

There were undoubtedly large numbers of fights and 
rows between whites and blacks in the first year and a half 
after emancipation, many of which were due to the hos- 
tility of the lower class of whites toward the negroes. 3 But 
the condition of Georgia, as it appears to one reading the 
newspapers of different sections of the state day by day, 
was far from that of anarchy, absolute lawlessness, and 
incipient civil war, as it was represented by the radical 
members of Congress. In the South, the tendency had al- 
ways been strong to settle difficulties by the law of the fist 
or the shot-gun, and naturally there was something more 
of this kind of lawlessness in the months when courts were 
disorganized and adjustment to peace conditions was being 

*New York Times, November 23, 1865 (Truman) ; Nation, February 
1, 1866 (Dennett) ; New York Herald, June 18, 1866. 
8 Andrews, War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, p. 252. 
' Joint Committee on Reconstruction, 1866, pt. iii, pp. 42, 46, 129. 



1^2 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 

made. Garrisons of soldiers, instead of keeping order, fre- 
quently disturbed the peace and caused conflicts with ne- 
groes, and in the first few months after the surrender, negro 
troops were centers of disturbance wherever they were sta- 
tioned. The following letter, written by a resident of At- 
lanta in July, 1866, tells of one case, typical of many such 
outbursts of rowdyism: 

The great Fourth of July has come and gone, and what a 
time we had of it. The occasion was observed only by the 
negro population. They had a grand procession and with 
banners flying paraded the streets and went to a grove near the 
cemetery where speeches were made, songs sung, and a big 
dinner came off. I went out and spent an hour with them, 
expecting to hear Dunning, Markham, and perhaps " Free 
Dave " make speeches, but was disappointed. . . . When the 
procession returned to the city, a lot of drunken Yankee 
soldiers — with Fourth of July on the brain — attacked them, and 
there was a general row. I never witnessed more disgrace- 
ful scenes in my life. No one was killed, but more than twenty 
shots were fired, and many were injured- The affair took 
place on Decatur St., near where the circus tent was placed. 
It was enough to disgust any man with his country. There 
is a very bitter feeling between the negroes and the Yankees, 
and though I am no advocate of disorder, I can find it in my 
heart to stand complacently aside and see them kill one an- 
other just when they please. The negro population is being 
made sensible of who are their friends and where they may 
look for sympathy when trouble comes. 1 

Every kind of departure from order that took place and 
many that did not take place were dressed up for appear- 
ance in the pages of radical newspapers in the North, like 

1 Letter written by Mr. V. P. Sisson, Atlanta, July 8, 1866 (MS. in 
possession of Mrs. V. P. Sisson, Kirkwood, Ga., to whom I am indebted 
for the use of this and other letters). 



!33] SOCIAL RE-ADJUSTMENT 133 

the New York Tribune and the Philadelphia Press, as "Out- 
rages on the Freedmen ". B. C. Truman, in December, 
1865, remarked on the danger of Northern newspaper cor- 
respondents becoming " hireling incendiaries " to misrepre- 
sent the South, and an editorial in the New York Times, 
representative of conservative policy toward the South, 
made comment on the pernicious practice of Northern 
newspapers in gathering up accounts of maltreatment of ne- 
groes. The same thing might be done for the North with 
quite as unfair results. 1 Georgia newspapers were indig- 
nant and helpless at the misrepresentation of conditions 
given in Northern papers. The Atlanta New Era said that 
radicals in the North used stories of abuse of freedmen as 
political ammunition against the Conservative party. The 
whites were kind in their dealings with negroes, and ready 
to adapt themselves to the new relation. Abuse of the negro 
occurred as everywhere, but scattered cases were not in- 
dicative of the Southern mind. There was a strong sus- 
picion that reports of outrages were made by subsidized 
letter writers and by sub-agents of the Freedmen's Bureau, 
whose only chance of employment was to keep up pretence 
of need of the Bureau. 2 The Milledgeville Federal Union 
said that while Congress was wrangling over the negro, 
the freedmen were attending to their business, and all in- 
telligent and respectable negroes would remain uncontami- 
nated, in spite of Yankee school-marms, correspondents for 
the radical press, agents of the Freedmen's Bureau and all 
other evil spirits. 3 As to the misrepresentation of condi- 
tions in the South by the Northern press, the following 

1 New York Times, November 20, 1865 (Editorial); December 10, 
1865 (Truman). 

1 November 15, 1866. 

3 April 24, 1866. 



!34 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA ^34 

statement is significant, made before the Reconstruction 
Committee of Congress by Brigadier-General Tarbell, who 
purchased a plantation in Mississippi and intended to reside 
and open an office in Atlanta : 1 

It is also my impression that many people in the North very 
greatly overrate the present character and capacity of the plan- 
tation negro, as well as his capacity for future improvement. 
I think time will show that the most ardent in the North will 
be greatly disappointed in the improvement of these negroes, 
even under the most favorable circumstances. I wish to add, 
judging from my travels in these three states [Mississippi, 
Alabama and Georgia], that these reports of outrages upon the 
colored people, of ill-treatment of the northern settlers, are 
quite exceptional cases, and exaggerated, if not altogether false, 
and that all these statements in the newspapers of outrages 
upon the blacks and upon the settlers from the North, I think, 
do the educated people of the South very great injustice- 
There are, no doubt, disloyal and disorderly persons in the 
South, but it is an entire mistake to apply those terms to a 
whole people. I would as soon travel alone, unarmed, through 
the South as through the North. The South I left is not at all 
the South I hear and read about in the North. From the 
sentiment I hear in the North, I would scarcely recognize the 
people I saw, and, except their politics, liked so well. I have 
entire faith that the better classes are friendly to the negroes, 
and that through this feeling, and the laws of capital and labor, 
the relations of these classes, will settle down together on terms 
equitable and just to both. I have also faith that when the 
North and South come to know each other better their rela- 
tions will be all that could be desired. 

Temper in Georgia was continuously milder toward ne- 
groes and more friendly toward protecting them than in the 
states further south. For one thing, Georgia's black prob- 



1 Joint Committee on Reconstruction, 1866, pt. iii, p. 157. 



!35] SOCIAL RE-ADJUSTMENT ^5 

lem was not so difficult as was the race question in Alabama 
or Mississippi or Louisiana, because Georgia had fewer 
negroes in proportion to the white inhabitants. In i860, 
negroes were not quite equal in number to the total white 
population of Georgia, and in only thirty-seven out of one 
hundred and thirty-two counties did the blacks outnumber 
the whites. 1 The responsible press of Georgia and her 
acknowledged leaders in the restoration period were all of a 
mind to act wisely and justly toward the former slaves. 
There was some loud bluster and harsh action toward ne- 
groes, outbreaks of race feeling, but such talk and action 
did not come from the class that represented authority in 
1865 and 1866. As the editor of the Macon Telegraph said, 
it was the duty of good citizens to protect negroes from the 
influence of a large class of whites who never owned slaves, 
and who showed contempt and injustice toward the ne- 
groes. 2 It would be hard to find anywhere discussions of 
the relations of the whites to negroes just after the war 
more sound in common sense, more just or more humane 
in spirit than in the final address of H. V. Johnson to the 
constitutional convention of 1865, the inaugural address of 
Governor Jenkins, or the speech delivered by Alexander 
Stephens before the Georgia legislature on February 22, 
1866. 3 

1 Phillips, Georgia and State Rights, population map facing p. 206. 

2 December 28, 1865. 

8 Journal of the Constitutional Convention, 1865, pp. 201-207 ; Journal 
of the House of Representatives, 1865-6, pp. 58-66; and 413 et seq. 



i 



CHAPTER VI 
Political Reorganization 

i 

On April 30, 1865, news was received in Georgia through 
a dispatch from General Johnston to Governor Brown that 
hostilities against the United States had ceased. At this 
time Federal authority was already established in the region 
round about Savannah, which was held after General Sher- 
man's occupation in December, 1864, and in Macon, which 
was taken by General Wilson on his cavalry raid in April 
just before the surrender. From Savannah and Macon as 
centers, military occupation was extended over the whole 
state during April, May and June. Augusta was occupied 
on May 3d, Athens on May 4th, Atlanta on the 16th and 
Milledgeville on the 21st. Central garrisons were estab- 
lished at these points, from which military lines radiated. 
Later in May, troops were ordered to occupy Brunswick and 
Darien on the coast, the towns along the Ocmulgee and Al- 
tamaha rivers, and along the railroad from Doctortown to 
Thomasville. 1 

Some disorder in various parts of the state marked the 
transition to military authority, when civil law was inter- 
rupted. In Augusta and other towns there were bread riots, 
ruffians broke into bakeries and grocery stores, and depots 
of Confederate supplies were raided in various places. 
Stragglers returning from the disbanded armies caused dis- 

1 For the military occupation of Georgia, see Annual Cyclopedia, 
1865, p. 392; newspaper clippings in the Townsend Library; and 
Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, vol. xlvii, pt. iii, pp. 322, 
387, 466, 473, 537, 561, 596, 597, 626, 641, 667; vol. xlix, pt. ii, pp.. 
718-9, 967, 970, 1023, 1059. 

136 [136 



!37] POLITICAL REORGANIZATION 137 

turbance through the country and around railroad junction 
points. In the mountainous districts of North Georgia law- 
less bands kept the people in a turmoil by their pillaging. 
Idle negroes committed burglaries and wandered about at 
all hours of the night. In Chatham County depredations 
by lawless bands of men did great damage to property and 
threatened the loss of the year's crops. In November, dis- 
turbed conditions in Wilkes County were such that General 
Steedman ordered forces there to check the outrages of 
bands of jayhawkers and regulators. 1 

Frequent broils occurred between soldiers and citizens, 
between negroes and white soldiers and between white peo- 
ple and colored troops. Garrisons where colored troops 
were established were centers for disturbance. Hot-headed 
young Southern men would not brook the lording insolence 
of the blacks in brass buttons. And negro soldiers every- 
where had a bad influence on the freedmen of the neigh- 
borhood, encouraging them in idleness and arousing in 
them a feeling of distrust or hostility to their white em- 
ployers. Discontent among the Federal soldiers themselves 
did not make matters more comfortable. White volunteers 
were restive, thought they ought to be immediately mus- 
tered out, and regular soldiers did not get along with col- 
ored troops. General Grant, after his tour of inspection in 
the South, reported to President Johnson, December 18, 
1865, that the presence of black troops, lately slaves, de- 
moralized labor by their advice and by furnishing resorts 
for freedmen for miles around, whereas white troops gen- 
erally excited no opposition. Negro troops had to be kept 
in large enough numbers for their own defense. 2 Though 

1 O. R., vol. xlvii, pt. iii, pp. 595, 596, 665-6; New York Times, De- 
cember 11, 1865; New York Herald, May 20 and 21, 1865. 

3 New York Times, December 3, 1865. Truman concluded that negro 
troops should be dismissed, since their service was " unnecessary, un- 
palatable, impolitic." — Ku Klux Committee Report, vol. i, pp. 294-5. 



138 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [138 

the relations of white citizens and white soldiers were far 
from cordial, still, in most places they got along together 
passably well. Conditions were represented thus by a dis- 
tinguished Georgian in a letter to General Sherman on 
May 10th: 1 

. . . We are all very blue at the prospects before us — We 
who had labored to save the country from the terrible strife 
through which we have just passed; and who, after war com- 
menced, labored and prayed for its termination, hoped, that, 
with the hush of arms would smile peace and quietude. That, 
though crushed and ruined in all our material prosperity, we 
should have cheerful hearts to begin to clear the wreck and get 
things in shape for our children. But we have. not realized 
our hopes. True, there is no war upon us, but then it is not 
peace. Armed men still cover our whole land, and though they 
do not claim the right to take whatever they wish, they manage 
in one way or another to procure all they desire. Almost daily 
houses are entered and pilfered, and we meet at every turn 
the air of derision and defiance. Our people made almost 
superhuman exertions, after your army passed through, to 
gather up plough stock and get supplies to enable us to make 
a support for what of helplessness was left. Many of the 
farms were left crowded with helpless women and children, 
with a few old men. I counted the other day twenty-nine 
children in one yard, with only two decrepit negro men to 
labor with the proprietor for their support. Now the com- 
mander's cavalry squads, stationed at various points in the 
country, permit the negroes to take the plough stock from 
the farmer and swarm into their camps, and lounge about, 
abandoning all labor — Surely, whatever may be the final destiny 
of this people, they ought to be required to make a support — 
And the negro girls for miles and miles are gathered to the 
camps and debauched. In some instances this has occurred 



1 Johnson MSS. This letter was written by N. G. Foster of Madison, 
Morgan Co., Ga., May 10, 1865. 



139] 



POLITICAL REORGANIZATION 



139 



when ladies have taken the same pains to protect their virtue 
that they exercised towards their own daughters. It surely 
is not the wish of those persons who aim at an equality of 
colors to begin the experiment with a whole race of whores. 
. . . The cry of vengeance which has been raised, to keep 
down future rebellion is all gammon. I have not conversed 
with a soldier who had returned, that does not express a per- 
fect willingness to abide the issue. They say they made the 
fight and were overpowered, and they submit. Nothing will 
again disturb the people but a sense of injustice. No people 
who descended from Revolutionary fathers can be kept tamely 
in a state of subjugation. And if it becomes necessary to 
establish a military despotism South, any man with half an 
idea must see that the North must eventually fall under the 
same rule. 

The relation of the military to the civil authority was not 
clearly defined, and was all the more confused, owing to the 
fact that Georgia responded to two commanding generals — ■ 
the east to* General Gillmore, Department of the South, and 
the west to General Thomas, Department of the Mississippi, 
who held conflicting opinions as to their functions. Gen- 
eral Gillmore acted on the principle that the government of 
the state should be dominantly military, without recourse to 
civil administration except where necessity compelled. Gen- 
eral Thomas, on the other hand, instructed his officers that 
" the military authority should sustain, not assume the func- 
tions of civil authority ", except where necessary to pre- 
serve peace. The milder of these two theories of military 
control was the one applied more extensively in Georgia; 
for on June 27, 1865, there was a reorganization, and the 
Department of Georgia, under General Steedman, was 
made part of General Thomas's command. 1 General 



1 Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, vol. xlvii, pt. iii, pp. 
594, 596, 633, 667-8, 680. 



I4 q RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ I4 q 

Thomas took measures to restore civil organization in the 
counties, empowering all duly authorized judges, commis- 
sioners, and others to proceed to perform their duties ac- 
cording to the laws of 1861, except that the negro must be 
regarded as free. Where vacancies occurred, loyal people 
[those taking the amnesty oath] might elect new officers, 
subject to the approval of the military commander. 1 

In the actual administration of military rule the amount 
and kind of interference with civil affairs varied according 
to the temper of the officers in charge of the districts. In 
addition to the general business of the protection of life 
and property and the preservation of peace, military orders 
regulated and established courts, disbanded the state gov- 
ernment, regulated newspapers to practices of loyalty, 
supervised mails, administered railroad affairs, made provi- 
sions and restrictions for trade and commerce, supervised 
schools, extended aid and relief in desolate communities, 
and performed various functions of ordinary civil adminis- 
tration. General Wilson, in his orders to one of his subor- 

Military organization of Georgia by General Orders, no. 118, June 
27, 1865 and General Orders, no. 130, July 28, 1865 : 

Military Division of Tennessee, Maj. Gen. G. H. Thomas command- 
ing, comprising Departments of Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama. 

Department of Georgia, — Maj. Gen. Steedman, commanding. 

Military Districts — 

(1) northwestern — Gen. Stevenson — 

vicinity of Atlanta and Marietta — all coun- 
ties on both sides of the W. & A. R. R. — 
Headquarters in Atlanta. 

(2) southwestern — Gen. Wilson — 

Griffin, Macon, Milledgeville, Albany, Colum- 
bus, Andersonville — Headquarters in Macon. 

(3) southeastern — Gen. Brannan — 

Headquarters in Savannah. 

(4) northeastern — Gen. King — 

Headquarters in Augusta. 

1 0. R., vol. xlix, pt. ii, pp. 343, 582, 621. 



141 ] POLITICAL REORGANIZATION 

dinate officers, May 4, 1865, designated the following as the 
duties of an officer in command : to arrest prominent agi- 
tators and rebels who try to evade terms of capitulation; to 
compel editors to publish papers in the interests of peace 
and national unity under the constitution and the laws, to 
exact parole to this effect or to prohibit publication of the 
paper; to encourage civil officers to urge others to accept 
the situation; to discountenance public meetings and keep 
down excitement; to protect property. 1 

In the matter of the administration of justice, in the west 
and the north, under General Thomas's command, county 
courts were from the outset encouraged to resume ordinary 
business; in the east, General Gillmore provided for pro- 
vost courts for the trial of petty offences, and for the en- 
forcement of civil claims and contracts that needed im- 
mediate decision. He proposed a concession to local auton- 
omy by inviting local magistrates who had taken the am- 
nesty oath to sit with the military officers, and by allow- 
ing civil magistrates to exercise their functions in places 
not conveniently reached by the troops. 2 After the Presi- 
dent's policy toward the rebel states was announced, and 
after the provisional governor of Georgia assumed office 
in June, progress was made in reorganizing courts and 
local bodies of administration on the basis of loyalty, and 
military authority was more and more restricted to meas- 
ures of maintaining peace and enforcing justice where the 
civil authorities failed. But even after the complete state 
government was reorganized, justice by military force was 
not rare. In August, 1866, the Augusta Chronicle noted 
the first military arrest under General Grant's order for 
the military to act where civil authorities failed. 3 The case 

1 0. R., vol. xlix, pt. ii, p. 604. 

2 Ibid., vol. xlvii, pt. iii, pp. 594, 633. 
* August 22, 1866. 



1 42 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [j^ 2 

was one of an assault by one white man on another, in 
which civil authorities made no arrest. In this case the 
military turned the prisoner over to the civil courts for trial. 
In October, 1866, Judge Perry closed the county court of 
Burke because of interference from the garrison at Waynes- 
boro. 1 In December, 1866, the first case under the Civil 
Rights Bill was reported. At the instance of J. C. Swayze, 
some citizens of Griffin were arrested, imprisoned in Ft. 
Pulaski, and released on bail to appear before the U. S. 
Court of the Northern District. 2 

Numerous instances occurred of military discipline exer- 
cised upon newspaper editors for articles that were con- 
sidered disloyal. In Augusta, every editorial had to be sub- 
mitted to the post commander for approval before publi- 
cation, and for one fiery article the Augusta Constitution- 
alist was seized and a sentry put in the composing room. 3 
Subscribers to the Athens Watchman were surprised one 
day to find in the columns of the paper words of high praise 
for the Federal soldiers and harsh criticism for the South, 
until they learned that the Federals had taken possession 
of the Watchman office and issued the sheet to express their 
own sentiments. 4 In July, 1865, the editor of the Macon 
Journal and Messenger was imprisoned and the paper sup- 
pressed. The " high crime against the United States ", of 
which the editor was guilty, was his statement in the paper 
of July 20th that in order to take the amnesty oath he had 
had to fortify himself with an extra amount of " Dutch 
courage ", and " immediately after the above performance 
we ' smiled ' and we were fortified in rear and front ". 5 

1 Milledgeville Federal Union, October 2, 1866. 
' Savannah News, December 15, 1866. 

3 Jones and Dutcher, Memorial History of Augusta, Georgia, p. 186. 

4 Hull, Annals of Athens, p. 301. 

6 Milledgeville Federal Union, August 1, 1865; Avery, History of the 
State of Georgia, p. 345. 



^3] POLITICAL REORGANIZATION 743 

Control of the mail, also, was in charge of the military 
after the disruption of the Confederate postal service. All 
mail had to go through the office of the provost marshal, 
and the privilege of the post was confined to those who had 
subscribed to the amnesty oath, which was required of all 
members of the family over eighteen. Young ladies found 
it very humiliating to take the oath, but some of them pro- 
tected themselves from Yankee contamination by fumiga- 
ting their letters before opening. 1 Off the railroad and out- 
side of military posts there was no mail service and people 
had no means of knowing what was going on. During the 
suspension of mail facilities, the Southern Express Com- 
pany arranged to send letters to any part of the United 
States for twenty-five cents. In the latter part of 1865 ad- 
vertisements for mail contracts appeared in Georgia papers, 
and in November of that year, a special agent of the Post 
Office Department was in Georgia arranging for the re- 
opening of the U. S. mails. During the spring of 1866 mail 
facilities were generally restored in the state, though it 
was difficult to find postmasters able to take the oath, and 
in some places women were appointed. 2 

In the early months of military rule, orders of officers 
dealt with such matters as railroad regulation and super- 
vision of trade and regulation of prices. The Western and 
Atlantic R. R. was in the hands of military officers and 
was repaired under their direction. Before returning prop- 
erty claimed by the Central of Georgia R. R., General Gill- 
more ordered that the board of directors be purged of dis- 
loyal men or those excluded from the amnesty proclama- 

1 New York Times, May 5, 1865 ; Savannah Herald, April 26, 1865 ; 
Hull, op. ext., p. 305. 

3 Macon Journal and Messenger, November 10, 1865 ; Savannah Herald, 
February 12, 1866; Milledgeville Federal Union, October 17, November 
7, 1865. 



144 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [144 



tion. 1 In matters of trade the military gave support to an- 
other branch of the Federal government — its treasury 
agents. Before the Freedmen's Bureau was well established 
in Georgia in June, 1865, affairs of the freedmen were ad- 
ministered by officers of the garrisons. In the matter of 
furnishing relief in parts of the state that had been 
ravaged by war. Federal officers were very helpful and 
co-operated with former Confederate officials. Mules, 
stock, and woollen goods belonging to the Confederate 
stores were distributed among the poor of North Georgia, 
and large amounts of food supplies were sent there to pre- 
vent the people from starving. Under the direction of Gen- 
eral Winslow a careful investigation was made of the con- 
dition of the people in the burned region along Sherman's 
track. 2 

On May 29, 1865, President Johnson announced his 
policy for restoring the seceded states to their place in the 
Union in his proclamation for North Carolina, and on June 
17th, the same measures were proclaimed for Georgia. At 
this time no authorized state organization existed in 
Georgia. The state legislature, summoned by Governor 
Brown, who acted on the assumption that the state was re- 
stored to its autonomy on the surrender of state arms, was 
prevented from assembling on May 226. by military order.* 
On May nth Governor Brown was arrested and sent to 
Washington in custody, where he remained about a week. 

1 Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, vol. xlvii, pt. iii p. 644; 
vol. xlix, pt. ii, pp. 999, 1002. 

* Ibid., vol. xlix, pt. ii, pp. 734, 748, 890, 903, 945. 

8 Ibid., vol. xlvii, pt. iii, p. 505 ; vol. xlix, pt. ii, p. 630. Gen. Gillmore 
wrote to Secretary Stanton, May 10th, that he had "no faith in the 
loyalty of Gov. Brown nor in that of the leading politicians of 
'Georgia," vol. xlvii, pt. iii, p. 464. 



i45l 



POLITICAL REORGANIZATION 



145 



After his return he issued to the people of Georgia a formal 
resignation of the governorship. 1 On June 17th, James 
Johnson was appointed Provisional Governor of Georgia 
by the President. The appointee represented the class con- 
sistently used by President Johnson as the medium of his 
restoration policy, those who had opposed secession in 1861 
and who had taken no prominent part under state or Con- 
federate administration during the war. Mr. James John- 
son was a respected lawyer of Columbus, who stood well in 

1 Ibid., vol. xlix, pt. ii, p. 1064. Gen. Thomas wrote to Gen. Wilson, 
July 4, 1865, that he thought that the President permitted Brown to 
resign as governor. The ex-governor continued to exercise great in- 
fluence in Georgia, and some in Washington, as well. He kept in close 
touch with President Johnson by letter and telegram. The following 
telegrams are samples of many communications from Brown to the 
President in the Johnson MS'S. 

"August 7, 1865. 
Macon, Ga. 

" I think it important that I have an interview with you about offices 
here. If my health will permit I should like to start to Washington 
in about ten days. Please send me passport to this place by telegraph. 
No telegraph office at Milledgeville." 

(Signed) Jos. E. Brown. 

"Atlanta, Ga. July 21, 1865. 
" No opportunity is offered the people of many of the counties of 
the state to take the amnesty oath, the back woods counties whose 
people are most loyal and would send delegates on your line of policy, 
are neglected. 

" Please order a person with competent authority into each county 
in the State to administer it. If this is done soon there will be no 
difficulty in the Convention. 

" Hope you have received my letters by express — No mail to Milledge- 
ville. Answer to Atlanta. On my way to Cherokee for few days. 
Where is Senator Patterson? 

(Signed) Joseph E. Brown. 

It is possible that ex-Gov. Brown may have been one of the in- 
fluences that changed Johnson from severe to moderate measures to- 
ward the rebels. Brown as one of the " plain people ", not of the 
slave oligarchy, had qualities to appeal to President Johnson, in addi- 
tion to his astuteness in dealing tactfully with the stubborn president. 



I4 6 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



his profession. He had served one term in Congress, 
elected on the Union platform in 185 1 ; had generally been 
on the unpopular side of agitated questions; had opposed 
secession in 1861, and lived quietly during the war. 1 Mr. 
Joshua Hill, the conspicuous leader of Unionist sympathies 
in the state, was looked upon as the probable choice of the 
President, and when it was noted that he had gone to Wash- 
ington, his appointment was taken for assured. Meetings 
were organized which endorsed the candidacy of Joshua 
Hill and many personal recommendations were sent to 
President Johnson in his behalf. Mr. Hill himself was not 
slow in suggesting his suitable qualities to the President, 
as the following letter, written by Hill to President Johnson 
on May 10, 1865, shows: 2 

I take the liberty of addressing you on a subject of pressing 
importance to the people of Georgia — and to the Southern 
people generally. It is one that demands a speedy solution. I 
am prompted by no other motive than a desire to see tranquillity 
restored to a distracted land, and society relieved of the 
terrible evils of war. I am no sectionalist, and have never been 
a separatist in thought, act, or deed. I have never given a 
vote or taken an oath recognizing any other nationality than 
that of the United States. I say this much in vindication of 
my principles. 

After discussing the labor question and the sentiment of 
Georgia people toward the Union, Mr. Hill finds it necessary 
to add in postscript : 

This letter is written at Augusta, but from habit dated at 
my residence. I am at this point endeavoring to make myself 

1 Avary {ed.), Recollections of Alex. H. Stephens, p. 230, et seq.; 
Avery, History of the State of Georgia, p. 341; Fielder, Life and 
Times and Speeches of Joseph E. Brown, p. 410. 

2 Johnson MSS. 



147] 



POLITICAL REORGANIZATION 



147 



useful — to both country and people. You may rest assured 
that the [word not clear] of this State, have abandoned all 
idea of further following the fortunes of Mr. Davis, or the 
phantom of Southern independence. I trust you may remem- 
ber me, as one of the Representatives of Georgia at the time 
of her secession — who condemned that movement — standing 
alone — amongst her public men — in the national councils. 

However, other delegations than that headed by Hill 
made the pilgrimage to Washington and strong opposition 
to him developed, possibly because of his radical unionism. 
As one correspondent said, there was danger that Hill might 
" play Brownlow ". Finally, a compromise was arranged. 
On June 16th, O. A. Lochrane, as chairman of the united 
delegations from Georgia to President Johnson, recom- 
mended James Johnson as Provisional Governor, and on 
the following day the appointment was made. 1 

On July 13th, Provisonal Governor Johnson issued his 
first official proclamation, calling for the election of dele- 
gates to a convention of the people on the first Wednesday 
in October and for the meeting of such convention in Mill- 
edgeville on the fourth Wednesday of the same month. 
Only those citizens who had taken the amnesty oath were 
qualified to vote for members of the convention. Two days 
later in a public address in Macon, Provisional Governor 
Johnson said that he was appointed for the single purpose 
of enabling the people of Georgia to form a government. 
In his proclamation, he stated that until the new govern- 
ment was constituted, all redress of wrong was remitted to 
military authority. 2 The line of demarcation between civil 

1 In addition to this letter from Lochrane to the President, the 
Johnson MSS. contain many letters of May and June, 1865, and copies 
of resolutions passed at meetings in Georgia concerning the appoint- 
ment of a provisional governor. 

3 Avery, History of the State of Georgia, p. 341. 



I4 8 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ I4 8 

and military remained indeterminate. In some parts of 
the state local civil officers who subscribed to the amnesty 
oath continued to perform their duties, and where vacancies 
occurred, new appointments were made, sometimes by the 
officer in command, sometimes by the Provisional Gover- 
nor. 1 But no one could ever be sure at what moment mili- 
tary power would step in to supersede civil regulation. 

Elections for the constitutional convention were held as 
directed on the first Wednesday in October. The Presi- 
dent's purpose of throwing control into the hands of those 
who opposed secession in 1861 was in the main successful. 
Of the members elected twenty-two had been delegates 
to the secession convention of 1861, and all but one 
of them had voted against secession on the test resolu- 
tion. Fourteen, who had been defeated candidates for the 
1 86 1 convention on an anti-secession platform, were elected 
in 1 86 5. 2 Very few chosen in 1865 were known as strong 
secessionists, and few, also, had been thorough-going Union- 
ists during the war.® The great majority had disapproved 
of immediate secession, had voted the Bell-Everett or the 
Douglas-Johnson ticket in i860, and had then gone with the 

1 President Johnson communicated to Gov. Johnson, August 22, 1865, 
a report that Union men were ignored in appointment to state offices 
and preference given to rebels— a practice likely to embarrass the 
reconstruction policy of the government. In reply Gov. Johnson 
wrote that he uniformly gave preference in appointment to Union 
men. Some of the state officers who continued in office were ob- 
noxious and would be removed on application. Sen. Exec. Doc, 
39 G., 1 S., no. 26, p. 234. 

8 Journals of the Proceedings of the Constitutional Conventions of 
1861 and 1865 ; Milledgeville Federal Union, April 30, 1861, gives popu- 
lar vote for candidates for the convention of 1861. 

* Truman noted only 65 members that might be called " loyal ". New 
York Times, December 10, 1865. " It would be a mockery to say that 
this was a convention of loyal men." Andrews, South since the War, 
p. 281. 



149] 



POLITICAL REORGANIZATION 



149 



state when war actually came, and a great many had served 
in the army. The convention to restore Georgia to the 
Union was decidedly less brilliant in personnel than was 
the convention that withdrew Georgia from the Union. In 
the great crisis of 1861 in every district the ablest and most 
experienced leaders were chosen to make the momentous de- 
cision on secession. Mr. U. B. Phillips in his Georgia and 
State Rights characterizes the 1861 convention as " with- 
out doubt the most distinguished body of men which had 
ever been assembled in Georgia. Every Georgian of politi- 
cal prominence was a member, with the exception of Jos. 
E. Brown, Howell Cobb, and C. J. Jenkins, while these gen- 
tlemen were invited to seats on the floor of the convention." 1 
With few exceptions, the ablest and most distinguished men 
in Georgia had actively taken sides during the war, serv- 
ing either in military or civil office in high rank, and so 
were debarred from active participation in the work of res- 
toration. 2 Conspicuous by their absence from the 1865 
convention were Robert Toombs, Howell Cobb, Alexander 
and Linton Stephens, E. A. Nisbet, Ben. H. Hill, Jos. E. 
Brown, and F. S. Bartow. Of the delegates assembled at 
Milledgeville to reconstitute Georgia, nearly three hundred 
in number, the great majority were insignificant men who 
were not prominent either before or after 1865. The con- 
vention was described as a conservative body, unprogres- 
sive, mostly old men, with a conspicuous lack of prominent 
men and rising politicians. 3 

1 P. 202. 

■ Some were elected to the convention who had not been pardoned by 
the President. Pardons were rushed so that they might take their 
seats. Sen. Exec. Doc, 39 C, 1 S., no. 26, pp. 80, 81, 235. 

8 New York Times, November 17 and December 10, 1865. Truman 
described the convention as " a select body of old fogies and malignant 
demagogues". A correspondent of the Augusta Constitutionalist, 



150 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ i5 q 

In this body of respectable, substantial, mediocre citizens, 
leadership rested with two ante-bellum leaders, Chas. J. 
Jenkins and Herschel V. Johnson, who stood head and 
shoulders above all others. Both had had distinguished 
careers in Georgia, both opposed secession but went with the 
state when separation was declared. 1 Together they man- 
aged the convention, Johnson as presiding officer and Jen- 
kins as chairman of the committee on business. Under 
their capable direction, the convention set to work to trans- 
act the business outlined in the message of the Provisional 
Governor. 2 With characteristic steadfastness to the doc- 
trine of state rights, the convention repealed, but did not 
nullify, the ordinance of secession. 3 The form in which the 
convention declared the abolition of slavery, with the im- 
portant proviso, is significant of the temper of the body. 
Article I, section 20 of the new constitution was as follows : 4 

The Government of the United States having, as a war meas- 
ure, proclaimed all slaves held or owned in this State, eman- 
cipated from slavery, and having carried that proclamation 
into full practical effect, there shall henceforth be, within the 
State of Georgia, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, 

October 29, 1865, gives his impression : " It may be said that a very 
large majority of it are men who are the exactest types of the solid 
county representative — grave looking personages, clad to some extent 
in substantial homespun — though no few shine resplendent in northern 
ready-made clothes — decorous in demeanor, attentive to business, and 
anxious to get through and go home". 

1 Phillips, Georgia and State Rights, pp. 146, 167, 168, 179; Fielder, 
Life and Times and Speeches of Joseph E. Brown, pp. 411, 416; Avery, 
History of the State of Georgia, passim. 

2 Journal of the Constitutional Convention, 1865, p. 8, et seq. 

8 Ibid., pp. 17-18. This action indicates clearly that the majority of 
the convention, though anti-secessionists, had opposed secession on the 
ground of expediency and had not questioned the right to secede. 

* Ibid., p. 38. 



I5I ] POLITICAL REORGANIZATION 

save as a punishment for crime, after legal conviction thereof ; 
Provided, this acquiescence in the action of the Government 
of the United States, is not intended to operate as a relinquish- 
ment, waiver or estoppel of such claim for compensation or loss 
sustained by reason of the emancipation of his slaves, as any 
citizen of Georgia may hereafter make upon the justice and 
magnanimity of that government. 

A second article declared it to be the duty of the general 
assembly to protect and govern free persons of color, show- 
ing a disposition on the part of the convention to secure 
legal rights to the negro. A resolution was adopted order- 
ing the appointment of a commission to draw up a code to 
show the changed relations between citizens and freedmen. 1 

The most difficult task before the convention was the 
settlement of the state war debt. The subject of repudia- 
tion was widely discussed before the election and was the 
biggest bone of contention during the whole session. The 
sentiment of the convention was strongly opposed to repu- 
diation. The question was more than mere approval or 
disapproval of the purpose for which the debt had been in- 
curred. There was the natural desire of those who held 
public securities to sustain the credit of the state; and im- 
portant, too, was the fear that repudiation might scare capi- 
tal away from the state, especially strong in counties with 
large towns where there was hope of building up strong in- 
dustrial interests. In the state at large three different 
methods of disposing of the debt were discussed — redemp- 
tion dollar for dollar in greenbacks, redemption at the gold 
value of the debt when incurred, and repudiation of the en- 
tire debt contracted during the war. 2 In spite of the appeal 

1 Journal of the Constitutional Convention, 1865, pp. 44, 125, 174. 

* Augusta Constitutionalist, October 20 and November 3, 1865; New 
York Times, November 2, 1865 ("Quondam"). 



I5 2 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ r ^ 2 

of Provisional Governor Johnson to President Johnson for 
aid and the President's peremptory reply that the debt 
should be set aside, the fight continued until the close of 
the session. 1 On November 6th, Judge Jenkins, as chair- 
man of the committee of sixteen, reported that the com- 
mittee was unable to agree on the question of the debt, and 
asked discharge. 2 Finally enough members were convinced 
that repudiation was an absolute condition upon restoration 
to pass the ordinance of repudiation, 135 to 117. 3 

These three measures — repeal of the secession ordinance, 
abolition of slavery, and repudiation of the war debt — con- 
stituted the most important work of the convention. Sev- 
eral measures of local significance also received attention 
from the convention — the investigation of the state finances, 
instituted by the political enemies of ex-Governor Brown, 
the enactment of a temporary stay law until the legislature 
should take action, the drawing up of a petition to present 
to President Johnson on behalf of Jefferson Davis, Alex- 
ander Stephens and others, resolutions to request relief for 
citizens excluded from amnesty, and the organization of a 
temporary militia in each county. 4 Also a recommendation 
was agreed upon to accede to the proposition of General 
Tillson, Assistant Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau, 
to employ certain state officers as agents of the Bureau, 6 
and a recommendation to the legislature to pass measures of 
relief for widows and orphans of deceased soldiers and for 
infirm soldiers. 6 

1 McPherson, Reconstruction, pp. 20-21. 

1 Journal of the Constitutional Convention, 1865, p. 163. 

3 The wording adopted was that of A. H. Chappell, amended: "to 
render null and void all debts of this State created for the purpose of 
carrying on the late war against the United States." Ibid., pp. 135-6, 
185, 234. 

*Ibid., pp. 56, 93, 106, 118, 143-4, 184, 192, 195. 

h Ibid., p. 58. *Ibid., p. 136. 



J 



153] POLITICAL REORGANIZATION ^3 

On November 8th the convention adjourned, subject to 
call by the president of the body within six months, should 
the question of Federal relations demand further settle- 
ment. 1 

In the state election of November 15th, Judge Jenkins 
was the only candidate for the governorship. Others had 
been mentioned — notably Alexander Stephens and ex-Gov- 
ernor Brown, both of whom emphatically refused to be can- 
didates for the office. 2 The unanimous choice of Judge 
Jenkins expressed a desire on the part of the people to unite 
on a safe, thoroughly conservative person, who stood for 
recognition of new conditions imposed as the result of war 
without disowning the career of Georgia in the previous 
four years. In the state election none were disfranchised 
by reason of the war, as had been the case in the election 
for delegates to the convention. Hence, the new legislature 
was less dominated by the element that controlled the 
convention, Union sympathizers or anti-secessionists. In 
counties where one candidate was an ex-Confederate and 
the other had kept out of the conflict, choice generally fell 
upon the former. This was partly an expression of loyalty 
to the past, but in greater part it meant that the best, most 
representative citizens in the state had actively taken part 
in the war, and those that managed to keep out were inferior 
men. 

The temper of the legislature, which convened in Mill- 
edgeville on December 4, 1865, is evident in its choice of 
United States senators. Many candidates were in the field, 
actively or passively. Most prominent of all was Alexander 

1 Journal of the Constitutional Convention, 1865, p. 194. 

2 Macon Journal and Messenger, November 9, 1865; Avery, History 
of the State of Georgia, p. 351. 



I 



154 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ I54 

Stephens, who again on November 226. wrote a public letter 
to state that he would not allow the use of his name for any 
public office. 1 Joshua Hill, the leading Unionist in the state, 
was an avowed candidate, and other possibilities were H. 
V. Johnson, who had been president of the 1865 conven- 
tion, General L. J. Gartrell, Thomas Hardeman, speaker 
of the lower house of the new assembly, and Provisional 
Governor Johnson, who was pushed forward as a candidate 
by President Johnson in his telegram of December nth — 
"Why can't you be elected as Senator?" 2 Joshua Hill 
was the opponent of Stephens for the long term. On the 
first ballot Stephens secured 152 votes and Hill only 38. 
Mr. Hill seemed doomed to failure-— he had not secured 
the provisional governorship nor had he succeeded to lead- 
ership in the convention. His steadfastness in Union 
sympathy was of little benefit to him, even when the 
Union cause was supposedly triumphant. Election for 
the short term was not made until the sixth ballot, when 
H. V. Johnson was finally chosen. 3 The choice of Alex- 
ander Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederacy, and 
Herschel V. Johnson, a senator of the Confederacy, was 
viewed in different lights by the North and the South. The 
Washington correspondent of the New York Times voiced 
conservative criticism in the North thus : 

The election of A. H. Stephens and H. V. Johnson as Sena- 
tors from Georgia is received here with regret by the best 
friends of the South connected with the government. That 

1 Macon Telegraph, January 23, 1866. President Johnson sent a 
despatch to the effect that it would not be politic for Stephens to be a 
candidate for senator. Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, 
series ii, vol. viii, pp. 8, 18. 

2 Journal of the House of Representatives, 1865-6, pp. 44-5. 

3 Ibid., pp. 190-201. 



1 SS] POLITICAL REORGANIZATION 

two men should have been selected chiefly because of their 
prominence in the rebellion, and who cannot take the oath, 
simply embarrasses the work of restoration, and the Southern 
people in the end become the chief sufferers. The election of 
Prov. Gov. Johnson and Joshua Hill would have been a very 
encouraging sign of the moral effect of which the South is very 
much in need. 1 

The mistaken premise in the Northern argument was 
that Stephens and Johnson were chosen " chiefly because of 
their prominence in the rebellion ". But this was not true. 
They were fitting representatives of Georgia in 1866, prim- 
arily because they were conservative, cool-tempered leaders, 
who had opposed secession, and who looked back upon the 
war without animosity, willing to meet with dignity the de- 
mands of presidential reconstruction, and favorable toward 
securing to the negro full guarantee of civil rights by state 
law. Stephens especially was commended in Georgia as 
the man above all others who would be most useful in the 
trying process of reunion, conciliatory as he was in every- 
thing that he said or did. 2 

Of the seven congressmen elected in November, none was 
able to take the test oath, but only one, Solomon Cohen, 
of Savannah, a prominent member of the 1865 convention, 
had been an outright secessionist. The others were mod- 
erate men who had inclined toward the Union or had been 
co-operationists in 1861, afterwards following the state. 
W. T. Wofford of the seventh district was strongly Union- 
ist, but had given distinguished service in the Confederate 
Army. E. G. Cabaniss of the fourth district, John Christy, 
editor of a newspaper in Athens, elected from the sixth dis- 

1 Quoted in the Macon Telegraph, February 6, 1866. 

2 Macon Journal and Messenger, December 7, 1865; Augusta Constitu- 
tionalist, November 25, 1865; Augusta Chronicle, February 8, 1866; 
Macon Telegraph, February 7, 1866. 



I5 6 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ I5 6 

trict, Jas. D. Matthews of the fifth and Phil. Cook of the 
second had been members of the convention of 1865. Hugh 
Buchanan of the third district was not well known except 
as a lawyer of good ability, reported as favoring secession 
in 1 86 1 but moderate in temper. 1 

On December 14, 1865, according to instructions from 
President Johnson and Secretary Seward, Governor-elect 
Jenkins was inaugurated, though the Provisional Governor 
was not removed until five days later. 2 

The first action expected of the new legislature as part 
of President Johnson's program of reconstruction was the 
ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment. This was ac- 
complished on December 5th and 6th in the two houses. In 
course of the discussion on the amendment, question was 
raised as to the implication of the second clause, granting 
power to Congress to enforce the article by appropriate leg- 
islation, and an attempt was made to qualify the ratification 
with an amendment to declare that all rights of citizenship 
rested with the states, not with Congress. 3 But better 
judgment dictated that ratification should be unqualified, 
and so it was voted almost unanimously. 

1 New York Times, November 23 and December 10, 1865 (Truman) ; 
Joint Committee on Reconstruction, 1866, pt. iii, p. 130 (Test.: Prov. 
Gov. Johnson). 

5 Sen. Exec. Doc, 39 C, 1 S., no. 26 ; Avery, op. cit., pp. 352-4- 

* Journal of the House of Representatives, 1865-6, pp. 16-17; Journal 
of the Senate, 1865-6, pp. 9, 16, 17, 18. 

Howell Cobb wrote, December 7, 1865 : " I have heard nothing from 
Milledgeville of any interest, except the passage by both houses of 
the constitutional amendment for the abolition of slavery. I think 
they will get the 'peculiar institution' thoroughly disposed of after a 
while. It has now been abolished by Congress, the President, war, 
state conventions, legislatures, etc. If all that don't kill it, I should 
like to know what would?" Annual Report of the American His- 
torical Association, 191 1, vol. ii, p. 673. 



I57 ] POLITICAL REORGANIZATION 

The most significant work of the first session of the new 
assembly was the enactment of legislation concerning f reed- 
men. The commission appointed under the resolution of 
the convention reported to Governor Jenkins on December 
19, 1865, a series of eleven laws for the regulation of freed- 
men's rights. 1 After the hostile criticism which the Black 
Codes of other Southern states aroused in the North, there 
was a growing disposition in Georgia to refrain from en- 
acting a separate code for freedmen. 2 The advice given by 
ex-Governor Brown in a public letter issued February 14th, 
was followed in the main by the legislature. Ex-Governor 
Brown wrote that the labor system of Georgia had suffered 
a complete revolution by reason of the war, effecting an 
entire change in the relation of the white people to the 
black population. Hence the people of the state must real- 
ize that the former slaves were equal in legal rights, though 
they were not equals; and unless madness ruled the hour 
they would never be placed upon a basis of political equality 
with white people. As far as laws of rights and remedies 
in courts were concerned, the two races should be on equal 
terms. The negro should not be allowed to serve on juries, 
nor should he have the right to vote; but he ought to have 
the right to sue and be sued, to testify in court, leaving the 
credibility of testimony to be adjudged by the jury, and to 
be subject to the same penal enactments, and to have se- 
curity in property and to enjoy the fruits of his labor. If 
these rights were secured to the negro, then the state would 

1 Members of the commission appointed were Linton Stephens, 
Ebenezer Starnes, Logan E. Bleckley, Wm. Hope Hull, Lewis N. 
Whittle. Saml. Barnett took the place of the Linton Stephens, who 
resigned. Report of the commission in Macon Telegraph, January 
9, 1866, also pamphlet. 

* Savannah Herald, February 13, 1866; Macon lournal and Messenger, 
February 23, 1866. 



I5 8 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ I5 8 

probably be relieved of the Freedmen's Bureau and courts 
would be allowed to take cognizance of cases concerning 
the blacks. He thought it unwise for the legislature to 
adopt a distinctive Freedmen's Code. 1 

In the laws adopted by the legislature, negroes were se- 
cured in practically all civil rights as follows : 

Persons of color 2 shall have the right to make, and enforce 
contracts, to sue, be sued ; to be parties, and give evidence ; to 
inherit; to purchase, lease, sell, hold and convey, real, and 
personal property, and to have full and equal benefit of all laws 
and proceedings, for the security of person and estate, and 
shall not be subjected to any other or different punishment, 
pain or penalty for the commission of any act or offense, 
than such as are prescribed for white persons, committing like 
acts or offences. 

The privilege of the ballot and liability to jury service were 
not assigned to them, but these were likewise denied to one- 
half of the adult white population. The chief limitation on 
their legal status by reason of color was in the acceptance 
of their testimony in courts only in cases where persons 
of color were involved. 3 Other laws legalized marriage re- 
lations, established legal parental responsibility, and pro- 
hibited marriage between whites and blacks. 4 Vagrancy 

1 Atlanta Intelligencer, February 18, 1866 (Brown Scrap Books). 

* " Persons of color " were denned as " all negroes, mulattoes, mesti- 
zoes, and their descendants, having one-eighth negro, or African blood, 
in their veins." Acts of the General Assembly, 1865-6, p. 239. 

8 Ibid., pp. 234-5, 239-41. In the December term, 1866, the Supreme 
Court of Georgia upheld the competency of negroes to give testimony 
in cases where whites were involved. Infra, ch. xiii. 

*A Jim Crow law to compel railroads to furnish separate cars for 
negroes passed the House but was reported adversely by the Senate 
committee. Journal of the House of Representatives, 1865-6, pp. 
43, 185 ; Journal of the Senate, 1865-6, pp. 207, 235. 



POLITICAL REORGANIZATION I z ) g 

laws made no discrimination as to color. Thus, the reor- 
ganized legislature of Georgia put the freedmen on the 
basis of practical civil equality with white citizens, securing 
to them by state authority substantially the same rights 
that Congress guaranteed to them through Federal machin- 
ery in the Civil Rights Bill. 1 

Conservative papers in the North gave wide publicity to 
the inaugural address of Governor Jenkins, recognizing it 
as significant of the temper of the newly reorganized gov- 
ernment of Georgia. An editorial in the New York Times 
in comment said : 2 

Each succeeding day brings additional proof that if the 
moderate men of the South, such as Governor Jenkins of 
Georgia, are allowed some discretion in determining the future 
status of the freedmen, it will fare at least as well with the 
emancipated population as if we provide a sumptuary code for 
their guidance and protection in Washington or Boston. 

And again : 

The great problem of keeping the two races together in the 
lately insurgent states on terms which shall be mutually ad- 
vantageous, must be solved at the South — in the local Southern 
Legislatures, in the local courts of justice, in the Executive 
council chambers of just such governors as Governor Jenkins. 
And nothing that the philanthropy of the North can contribute 

1 Freedmen were excluded from the privileges of the Common School 
Law. Alex. Stephens wrote to his brother Linton from Washington, 
April 8, 1866: 

" I don't attach any great importance to this measure [the Civil 
Rights Bill]. It will not affect Georgia, I think, or any other state 
that has done as she has. I have not read the bill carefully; but this 
is my understanding of it. The great error of the bill is the principle 
assumed in its passage, the jurisdiction claimed by Congress, etc." 
Waddell, Biographical Sketch of Linton Stephens, p. 295. 

2 December 18, 1865. 



159] 



jSo RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [rfo 

will be a compensation to the freedman for his forfeiture of 
the good-will and kindly co-operation of those who have here- 
tofore directed his labor. 

While Georgians were disposed to grant protection in 
ordinary civil rights to freedmen, sentiment was strongly 
opposed to granting them the suffrage, and even the propo- 
sition of restricted suffrage was vigorously rejected. Alex- 
ander Stephens was in a decided minority in advocating the 
extension of the franchise " to such members of the black 
race as could come up to some proper standard of mental 
and moral culture with the possession of a specified amount 
of property." 1 

In 1865 and 1866 the people of Georgia lent themselves 
in good faith to the demands made upon them by the Presi- 
dent's scheme of restoration. Measures were accepted as 
necessary to restoration, quietly and submissively, and 
naturally without enthusiasm. Directors of public policy 
counseled acceptance of what was offered. Ex-Governor 
Brown, after his release from imprisonment in Wash- 
ington, actively worked to persuade people to take the 
amnesty oath and to co-operate with the President in his 
policy toward the Southern states. 2 Alexander Ste- 
phens, while he was in prison in Fort Warren near 
Boston, wrote to President Johnson in his application 
for amnesty: " ... If I were permitted to* exert them, 
all my influence and power would be directed to a res- 
toration of quiet, order, and government in Georgia upon 

1 Avary (ed.), Recollections of Alex. H. Stephens, p. 536. For 
further discussion of negro suffrage, see ibid., p. 267, et seq.; also 
testimony of Stephens before the Reconstruction Committee, re- 
printed in Johnston and Browne, Life of Alexander H. Stephens, 
pp. 610-23. 

1 Avery, History of the State of Georgia, p. 339. 



!5i] POLITICAL REORGANIZATION x 6i 

the basis of accepting and abiding by the issues of war as 
proclaimed by the Executive ". 1 And this pledge he entirely 
fulfilled after his release and return to Georgia in October, 
1865. His conciliatory spirit and his readiness to accept 
and adjust himself to new conditions were the qualifications 
which made him the pre-eminently suitable candidate for 
the United States Senate in 1866. H. V. Johnson and Chas. 
J. Jenkins likewise were apostles of full acceptance of the 
new order. Most of the ardent secession advocates of 1861 
were quiescent in 1865. Governor Brown was the only 
one of the vigorous secessionists who came forward as a 
vigorous supporter of President Johnson's policy. But 
Brown was always vigorous and active in leadership in 
whatever policy was foremost, whether it was secession or 
presidential restoration or radical reconstruction. Of the 
other notable secession leaders, Robert Toombs was a fugi- 
tive, no one knew where, and Howell Cobb and others were 
paying more attention to the necessary business of earning 
their daily bread than to politics. Political views of the 
press were in conformity with the policy of the government. 
Editors were perforce submissive, for they were subject 
to discipline for any unguarded words that might slip off 
their pens. 

The attitude of the people toward the government was a 
subject of inquiry before the Reconstruction Committee of 
Congress, and varied testimony was given according to the 
temper and prejudice of the witnesses. Provisional Gov- 
ernor Johnson testified that the feelings of the people toward 
the government improved in the first six months after the 
surrender. At first men were uncertain and reserved, but 
later were freer in talk and more ready to take part in re- 



1 Avary (ed.), Recollections of Alex. H. Stephens, p. 203. 



l6 2 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [^2 

organization, with better feeling toward the government. 1 
H. S. Welles, a Northerner who went to Georgia to look 
after railroad interests, said that people in Georgia gener- 
ally accepted the situation; the ex- Con federates were for 
peace, the common soldiers had had enough of war, business 
men were moderate, better satisfied than they had been; 
but the lower class of people were most bitter. 2 Other 
Northern witnesses testified that there was no " loyalty " in 
Georgia, though people were not so vindictive as in Ala- 
bama or Mississippi. People regarded themselves as sub- 
jugated, failing to acknowledge the wrong of secession 
though some lamented the war. 3 B. C. Truman, who was 
sent by President Johnson to investigate conditions in the 
Southern states, one of the most fair-minded and keenest 
sighted of all Northern travelers in the South who put their 
impressions in print, was of the opinion that people gen- 
erally in Georgia supported the work of restoration. Among 
officers and soldiers of the Confederacy, among editors and 
other responsible people there was much real loyalty. In 
Western and Central Georgia he saw an improvement in 
the feeling and condition of the people of all grades. Peo- 
ple in Georgia were rid of the excessive soreness of Ala- 
bama. 4 

Henry Watterson, likewise an investigator of conditions 
in Georgia and other parts of the South in the summer of 
1865, was of the opinion that the trend of events in Georgia 
was satisfactory. The same judgment was pronounced by 
General Grant after his brief tour made at the suggestion 

1 Joint Committee on Reconstruction, 1866, pt. iii, p. 13 1 (Test.: 
Prov. Gov. Johnson). 

*Ibid., p. 109. 

3 Ibid., pp. 1-2, 7-8. 

4 New York Times, November 23, 1865. 



POLITICAL REORGANIZATION jft?, 

of the President. And General Steedman wrote to Presi- 
dent Johnson from Georgia on August 15, 1865 : 

In my opinion, everything is moving satisfactorily toward 
the complete restoration of this State upon a basis that will 
be perfectly satisfactory to you and the country, as well as 
a triumphant vindication of the wisdom of your policy. . . . 
With the exception of a few isolated cases of outrages upon 
them — and these cases would have been as likely to occur in 
Ohio or New York as in Georgia — the Freedmen have been 
kindly treated, and have conducted themselves well. 1 

Carl Schurz, a thorough doctrinaire with fixed principles 
as to national loyalty and racial equality, gave a gloomy ac- 
count of the progress of reconstruction in Georgia, which 
had wide influence in the North. The attitude of Georgia 
people whom Schurz met lacked much of meeting his stand- 
ards of loyalty and social democracy. Because a South- 
erner, who had given his whole-souled allegiance for four 
years to the Confederacy, did not immediately shout — 
Hurrah for the Stars and Stripes ! — and because the master 
of slaves, the instant emancipation became a fact, did not 
look upon the freedman as a friend and a brother as did 
the German idealist, Schurz saw omens of recurring re- 
bellion and re-enslavement. 2 

Frances Butler Leigh, on her return to Georgia in March, 
1866, wrote that people in Savannah seemed crushed 
and sad, though there was no bitterness against the North. 
Women lived in the past, men in the daily present, trying 
in a listless way to repair their ruined fortunes. Politics 

1 Letters from Watterson and General Steedman are in Johnson MSS. 
The report of General Grant appears in Sen, Exec. Doc., 39 C, 1 S., no. 2. 

2 Letters from Schurz in Johnson MSS. His report appears in Sen. 
Exec. Doc, 39 C, 1 S., no. 2; also Speeches, Correspondence and 
Political Papers of Carl Schurz, vol. i, pp. 279-374. 



163] 



164 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA ^64 



was not mentioned — they did not seem to care what was 
going on in Washington. 1 Indeed, this observation on popu- 
lar indifference to politics is borne out for the rest of the 
state as well as Savannah, if the subject-matter in news- 
papers may be taken as the reflection of popular interests. 
News from Washington or from the state capital was less 
conspicuous than items giving news of the crops and dis- 
cussions of the problem of labor and other items of every- 
day life. Some papers published regular news letters from 
correspondents in counties throughout the state, whose news 
consisted mostly of local reports of weather, progress of 
the crop — whether it promised well or whether it was 
swamped by rain, parched by drought, or devoured by the 
worm; the behavior of the freedmen, how many were work- 
ing and how many hands were needed ; the amount and kind 
of wages paid in the neighborhood. Contributors seemed 
interested in the dispute as to whether it was better to put 
all the land in cotton and buy corn or to give more atten- 
tion to food crops and less to cotton; but ignored the end- 
less chain puzzle — When is a state not a state? — that was 
perplexing the wiseheads in Washington. On this subject 
sound advice was given to the people of Georgia by Gov- 
ernor Jenkins in his message to the legislature, November 
1, 1866, as follows: 2 

Our interest lies in eschewing political excitement, studiously 
avoiding all conflict with authorities unchosen by us, but placed 
over us, and employing our active energies in rebuilding our 
own waste places and developing our neglected resources. 
Whilst others rage and wrangle over ephemeral issues, let us 
be busy with the real, abiding concerns of life. Thus shall 
we emerge from this period of ostracism, wiser, more thriving, 
and more respected than ever- 

1 Leigh, Ten Years on a Georgia Plantation since the War, pp. 12-13. 
' Journal of the House, 1866, p. 31. 



r 65] POLITICAL REORGANIZATION ^5 

More interest in the political situation was aroused in the 
fall of 1866 when the Fourteenth Amendment was sub- 
mitted to the November session of the legislature. 1 By the 
end of 1866 it was evident that the cause of speedy restora- 
tion of the Southern states had failed with the defeat of 
the President's supporters and the success of the Radicals 
in the fall elections. When Congress failed to admit Sena- 
tors and Representatives from Georgia and other Southern 
states, and when it put the Fourteenth Amendment for 
ratification before the legislatures of the states that it said 
were not states, then it decisively took the management of 
reconstruction out of the President's hands and President 
Johnson's attempt to restore the states by executive action 
failed. 

The basis on which Congress acted in enforcing new re- 
construction upon the Southern states in 1867 was that they 
were still in a condition of war — hello nan flagrante sed 
nondum cessante. As far as Georgia is concerned, at the 
end of 1866, there was no condition of war, either flagrant 
or otherwise. There is no evidence that any attempt was on 
foot to stir up a new civil war. People generally accepted 
the results of former war. At the end of 1865, they were 
ready to make the best of things, and a year later they 
were hopeful of making things better. During the period 
of presidential restoration Georgia's political organization 
was rehabilitated : a governor, duly elected and inaugurated, 
administered the business of the state ; the legislature in two 
sessions attended to law-making as under normal condi- 
tions; courts, organized under the regulation of the new 

1 The Fourteenth Amendment was rejected by both houses of the 
legislature, November 9, 1866, by the Senate unanimously and by the 
House, 147-2. Senate Journal, 1866, pp. 39, 42, 44, 65-72; House 
Journal, 1866, pp. 68-9. 



i66 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [166 



constitution, were in operation to administer justice. From 
this point of view, Georgia seemed to be managing its af- 
fairs of statehood as a normal state. But there were still 
limitations on state authority. Federal troops were garri- 
soned in the state, and military authority superseded civil 
action in various cases. One-half of the population, the 
freedmen, to whom the legislature had assigned all the 
most important civil rights, were still under guardianship 
of the national government through the Freedmen's Bureau. 
So within its own bounds in local self-government, Georgia 
was not yet completely a state at the close of 1866. Nor 
was it a state in the Union, for its representatives were not 
admitted to either house of Congress. 

Socially, no great problems appeared in the early period 
of reconstruction. Emancipation had in itself brought no 
immediate upheaval in the relations of whites and blacks. 
Except in sqme classes, the old feeling of friendliness be- 
tween the two remained. In the first days of freedom the 
negroes were given to " putting on airs ", but in general 
their position of inferiority was recognized and accepted 
by them. Among the white population, changing fortunes 
of war and the development of new interests began to give 
evidence of shifting in dominant social classes, and town 
life showed signs of increasing importance. 

Economic re-adjustment was the greatest problem of the 
early aftermath of the war, and herein was the greatest 
achievement of the first attempt at restoration. Recovery 
from the poverty left by the drain of war was under way 
in the revival of commercial interests in towns and cities, 
and partially in the great agricultural districts of the state. 
The most revolutionary of all changes brought by the ex- 
perience of 1 86 1 -5 was the abolition of slavery as a system 
of utilizing negro labor. The labor question was not simply 
how to adapt free labor to the plantation, but how to use 



!6 7 ] POLITICAL REORGANIZATION jfy 

free laborers that were negroes. Management of negro 
labor was difficult in itself, and had been achieved by means 
of the compulsion and close supervision of slavery. But 
when negroes became free agents, then a difficulty mountain 
high arose before the Southern planter. Conditions in 1865 
seemed hopeless, but the situation in 1866 was more cheer- 
ing. Though there was still much to be done before the 
f reedman could be counted a responsible, dependable laborer, 
still reports from all over the state gave news that the ne- 
groes worked better than had been expected of them. 

While final adjustment was still remote, economic and 
social tendencies in 1865 and 1866 were decidedly on the 
upward curve of progress. After this period of hopeful 
convalescence came the critical relapse to unsettlement and 
upheaval, occasioned by the reconstruction measures of 
1867. 



PART II 

MILITARY AND POLITICAL 
RECONSTRUCTION 

1867-1872 



CHAPTER VII 



Military Rule 

On April i, 1867, when General Pope assumed com- 
mand of Georgia as part of the Third Military District, con- 
stituted by the Reconstruction Act of March 2, 1867, mili- 
tary rule was restored much as it was in May, 1865, when 
the Confederate power collapsed. And yet it was not the 
same, for in 1865 military force was intended to protect 
life and property in the transition from war to peace, and 
to assist in the reconstruction of civil authority. In 1867, 
the civil organization, which had been in successful opera- 
tion since December, 1865, was declared provisional only, 
and upon it was superimposed the command of a major- 
general of the army and his subordinates. All the construc- 
tive work of rehabilitation, the painful labor of almost two 
years, was set aside and the process of reconstruction under- 
taken practically from the beginning, exactly as if the war 
had come to an end in 1867 instead of 1865. 

Reconstruction, as ordained by the radicals in Congress 
in the Act of March 2, 1867, and its supplements of March 
23d and July 19th, meant the remaking of the state 
through a new electorate, prescribed by Congress to include 
negroes and to exclude the most capable and respected citi- 
zens of the state; a new constitution, which should secure 
suffrage to the freedmen; and the ratification of the Four- 
teenth Amendment, rejected by the legislature in the pre- 
vious October. 

During the early part of 1867, while this new plan was 
171] 171 



172 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[172 



in process of formulation in Washington, people in Georgia 
were making up their minds as to what they would do about 
it. The situation gave rise to three different parties : one 
group, headed by ex-Governor Brown, favored acquiescence 
in the proposed measure and advised that the state should 
meet Congress half way; another party vigorously de- 
nounced acquiescence as suicidal to the state ; a third group 
remained neutral for the time being, not ready to take 
action, thinking that it was better to wait and see, yet con- 
tinue to stand by President Johnson. 1 Ben Hill summed up 
the situation: "The complying accept, the resolute reject, 
none approve, while all despise ". 

In February, before the bill was finally passed, ex- 
Governor Brown returned to Georgia from Washington, 
where he had talked with men of all shades of opinion and 
had gotten a clear perception of the lie of the ground. 
A few days after his return he published a letter, addressed 
to some friends, in response to their request for his views 
on the situation. Brown, in writing, said that he was not 
in a position to seek popularity, and so might express his 
opinions freely, though they were not acceptable to the peo- 
ple of Georgia. The Radical party was clearly sustained 
by public sentiment in the North and had the necessary two- 
thirds in Congress to pass any measure over the President's 
veto. The North had been enraged at the rejection of the 
Fourteenth Amendment by the Southern states, and now 
demanded universal suffrage, with no division of opinion 
on the subject. Further, the Radical wing demanded that 
the state governments be declared null and void, that mili- 
tary government be established, and that all be excluded 
from office-holding, voting and jury service, who had vol- 
untarily taken part in the rebellion, leaving the government 



1 Atlanta New Era, March 3, 1867; Reed, History of Atlanta, p. 217. 



173] 



MILITARY RULE 



*73 



in the hands of the freedmen and a few loyal white men. 
Their ultimate design included confiscation of the property 
of the South to pay the war debt of the United States. The 
extreme Radicals had not yet secured a majority, and the 
moderates desired speedy adjustment under the power of 
Congress by the Fourteenth Amendment and universal suf- 
frage. Rejection by the Southern states would doubtless 
be followed by greater rigor. It was no longer a question 
as to whether the negro should vote — that was decided; 
the question as to the rights of the white people who took 
part in the war remained to be settled. Then what was to 
be done? Brown's advice was: "Agree with thine adver- 
sary quickly The state must abide by the United States 
in good faith. In the great need of capital, people in 
Georgia could get along only when political conditions were 
adjusted. They must regard as friends all Northerners and 
foreigners bringing capital into Georgia. Specifically, 
Brown advised that the governor call the legislature, recom- 
mend a convention to change the constitution so as to in- 
clude universal suffrage in conformity with the measures of 
Congress, and to provide for an early election of a new 
legislature to adopt the Fourteenth Amendment. If the 
convention should ask for it, Congress would probably re- 
lieve the disabilities of judges, county officers, and others 
necessary to the efficient administration of government. 1 

In this policy of meeting reconstruction half way, ex- 
Governor Brown represented a decided minority of the 
political leaders. The MUledgeville Union, a strong sup- 
porter of Brown during his governorship, made this com- 
ment on his letter : 

We consider Governor Brown one of our wisest statesmen 

better of Governor Brown, dated February 23, 1867, in the Atlanta 
New Era, February 26, 1867 and in Brown Scrap Books. 



174 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[174 



and purest patriots, and all advice coming from him claims our 
profound respect and earnest consideration. But we confess 
we cannot see, with the lights before us, how our situation 
will be improved by following his advice. . . . What would 
representation be worth to us if none could go except such as 
Ashburn and Co. ? Better send no one to Congress than such 
as would misrepresent us. And we would rather risk ten 
military governors than one Brownlow. 1 

The great majority of the white people undoubtedly were 
in sympathy with this opinion of the Milledgeville Union 
and with the position taken by Ben. H. Hill, the leader of a 
vigorous anti-reconstruction campaign, carried on by pub- 
lic speeches and by a series of contributed articles to news- 
papers, entitled, " Notes on the Situation ". 2 In the sum- 
mer of 1867, Robert Toombs returned from Europe, where 
he had been since his flight after the downfall of the Con- 
federacy, and announced himself as ready to organize in 
Georgia a Democratic Anti-Reconstruction Party. He 
wrote : " I regret nothing in the past but the dead and the 
failure, and I am ready to-day to use the best means I can 
command to establish the principles for which I fought 
Governor Jenkins and most of the public men in Georgia 
were not ready to bow their necks to the yoke voluntarily. 
They determined to resist by any lawful means in their 
power, and if they had no power of resistance whatever, 
then submission must come by force and not by consent on 
their part. There was some talk of fighting, but that came 
only from a few hot-heads, not from the more reputable 

1 March 5, 1867. Brownlow was the ultra-Radical governor of 
Tennessee. 

2 " Notes on the Situation," published in the Augusta Chronicle and 
Sentinel, beginning June 19, 1867. See also Benj. H. Hill, Senator 
Benjamin H. Hill, Life, Speeches and Writings, Appendix. 

3 Brown Scrap Books, a clipping from the Cincinnati Enquirer copied 
in a Savannah paper, July 16, 1867. 



175] 



MILITARY RULE 



*75 



citizens. In April, Governor Jenkins went to Washington, 
where he entered a petition before the Supreme Court for 
an injunction against the enforcement of the Reconstruc- 
tion Act, the State of Georgia being plaintiff and Edwin 
M. Stanton, Ulysses S. Grant and John Pope, defendants. 
But no relief in the political situation came from the court, 
which dismissed the Jenkins petition on May 13th for want 
of jurisdiction. 1 From Washington, Governor Jenkins 
issued an Address to the People of Georgia on April 10th, 
advising them to take no action under the Act, " palpably 
unconstitutional and grievously oppressive ", whatever 
might be the decision of the court. 2 

The military reconstruction of Georgia was directed by 
General Pope from April 1, 1867, to January 6, 1868. On 
his removal, General Meade was appointed to the Third 
Military District, acting until July 30, 1868, when civil au- 
thority was restored. For the first ten days of General 
Pope's command, Montgomery, Ala., was the headquarters 
of the Third District, with headquarters for Georgia in 
Milledgeville. On April nth, Atlanta was made head- 
quarters for the district. Georgia was organized into eight 
military districts, with posts established at Savannah, Au- 
gusta, Atlanta, Dahlonega, Rome, Athens, Columbus and 
Macon. 3 

The appointment of General Pope was received favor- 
ably, for he was understood to be conservative in politics 
and not inclined to compel too much military hardship. 
When he appeared in Atlanta to assume command, there 

x 6 Wallace, 50. 

8 Opinions of prominent men, Martin, Atlanta and its Builders, p. 29; 
Reed, History of Atlanta, pp. 217, 228; Atlanta Intelligencer, July 16, 
1867. 

3 Report of General Pope, October 1, 1867, in Report of Secretary 
of War, 1867-8, vol. i, pp. 320-374. 



176 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[176 



were enough who favored reconstruction for one reason or 
another to greet the general with a warm welcome. At a 
banquet given in his honor shortly after his arrival by those 
who wished to find favor with the military commander, a 
toast was proposed to " Reconstruction — Let it proceed 
under the Sherman Bill without appealing to the Supreme 
Court of the United States, the arbiter of our civil rights, 
and not of political issues The response was made by 
none other than Joseph E. Brown, who, just two years be- 
fore, was under arrest as a leading rebel. From April until 
August, General Pope and the civil officers got along in a 
fair degree of harmony. Two conservative newspapers 
agreed that, while not favoring military despotism, they 
thought Georgia was fortunate in falling to General Pope, 
who was inclined to be moderate and not too tyrannical. 2 

General Pope's policy was to allow civil officers to con- 
tinue in the administration of their duties unless they at- 
tempted to obstruct the execution of the Reconstruction 
Acts, provided they exercised authority to the interests 
of all alike, with no discrimination as to race. Where 
vacancies occurred the governor was allowed to make ap- 
pointments which fell within his jurisdiction, limiting his 
selection to those qualified to hold office under the Recon- 
struction Acts. Vacancies in elective offices were filled by 
the military commander. General Pope had to face many 
difficulties in his relation with civil officers, especially as 
popular irritation increased during the summer months as 
the work of registration got under way. He feared the dis- 
turbance that would result from wholesale removal of offi- 
cials, and yet he found that they were all hostile to the 
Reconstruction Acts. In filling offices he found it hard to 

1 Atlanta New Era, April 14, 1867. 

* Macon Telegraph, in Savannah News, July 8, 1867. 



!77] MILITARY RULE ijj 

get competent men to take appointment from him, for the 
newspapers hurled abuse on all who would accept. Between 
competency and loyalty he preferred loyalty. As he wrote 
to General Grant, July 24, 1867: "It is surely better to 
have an incompetent but loyal man in office, than to have a 
rebel of whatever ability. In fact, the greater the ability, 
the greater the danger of maladministration ". On the 
whole, comparatively few r civil officers were removed by 
General Pope, and those mainly for obstructing the process 
of reconstruction. In conflicts that arose concerning the 
jurisdiction of the governor and other civil officers, General 
Pope gave them to understand clearly that all civil au- 
thority was merely provisional, and that state laws held only 
until overruled by military order. 1 

Two orders of General Pope issued during August, the 
Newspaper Order and the Jury Order, helped augment the 
rising tide of hostility to him. On August 12th, in order 
to encourage favorable public opinion by nourishing a 
friendly press and disciplining hostile papers, General Pope 
commanded that all official patronage, publication of orders, 
proclamations, and advertisements be restricted to papers 
which had not opposed reconstruction under the acts of 
Congress nor attempted to obstruct civil officials appointed 
by military authority. 2 A howl of resentment and abuse 
went up from the reputable newspapers. As one editor 
said — it would be ridiculous to confine all public announce- 
ments to the four obscure and inferior radical journals. 
This act on the part of General Pope destroyed his repu- 
tation for conservatism. 3 A week later came the Jury Order, 

1 Reports and orders of General Pope in the Report of the Secretary 
of War, 1867-8, vol. i, pp. 24, 325-8, 333, 351 ; Savannah News, August 
21, 1867. 

7 Report of the Secretary of War, 1867-8, vol. i, pp. 325-6. 
3 Savannah News, August 19, 1867. 



178 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [178 

giving negroes the right to jury service denied to them 
under the laws of 1866. General Pope commanded that 
jurors for trial cases, civil and criminal, or for adminis- 
tration of the law, be taken from lists of voters, without 
discrimination, registered under the Reconstruction Acts. 
Jurors were required to swear that they were duly regis- 
tered. 1 As a result of this order came the most notable case 
of removal from office by General Pope. Judge Augustus 
Reese, of the Superior Court, Ocmulgee Circuit, one of the 
most prominent jurists in Georgia, wrote to General Pope 
that he could not consistently carry out the Jury Order, 
since it was contrary to the constitution and laws of Georgia 
which he had sworn to uphold. Accordingly, Judge Reese 
was removed from office. 2 From this time hostility to Gen- 
eral Pope increased steadily. Early in January his removal 
from command over the Third Military District occasioned 
much rejoicing in Georgia. 

The reason for the removal of General Pope probably 
was that his administration was too rigorous to suit the 
Johnson men in Washington as well as in Georgia, who 
pressed the President to remove him. The Washington cor- 
respondent of the New York Herald, in an article headed 
" Who killed Cock Robin? " suggested that the presence in 
Washington of H. S. Fitch, U. S. Attorney for Georgia, a 
Johnson man, might have some connection with the removal 
of Pope. 3 

The Savannah News voiced the sentiment of conserva- 
tives generally when it said that there was cause for rejoic- 
ing that a high-minded soldier had been substituted for a 

General Orders no. 53, Aug. 19, 1867, Report of the Secretary of 
War, 1867-8, vol. i, pp. 331-2. 

2 Ibid., pp. 332-3. 

3 Copied in Savannah News, January 6, 1868. 



MILITARY RULE iyg 

military satrap. 1 General Meade was pleasing in appear- 
ance and attractive socially, and seemed, as one reporter 
described him, " more like a Virginia gentleman than a 
soldier ". 2 But General Meade's popularity was speedily 
nipped in the bud when he removed Governor Jenkins and 
other state officers. The controversy, left over from Gen- 
eral Pope's regime, arose over the question of the disburse- 
ment of funds from the state treasury to pay the expenses 
of the constitutional convention. By the Reconstruction 
Acts the convention was empowered to levy taxes to meet 
its expenses, but before taxes could be collected the conven- 
tion needed funds to pay its running expenses, especially 
the per-diem of its members. The convention made a requi- 
sition upon the state treasury for $40,000, which requisition 
was endorsed by General Pope. The treasurer declined to 
honor the requisition without warrant from the governor, 
and such warrant was refused by Governor Jenkins on the 
ground that it was contrary to the constitution and laws 
which he was bound by oath to enforce. The question was 
still hanging fire when General Meade assumed command. 
A week later the general removed both Governor Jenkins 
and the treasurer, John Jones, appointing in their places, 
Brevet Brig.-Gen. Thos. H. Ruger as governor and Brevet 
Capt. Chas. F. Rockwell as treasurer. 3 Governor Jenkins 
and Treasurer Jones then removed from the state and be- 
yond General Meade's jurisdiction all funds, books and 
records of their offices, hoping to force the case into court 
and so obtain a hearing on the constitutionality of the Re- 
construction Acts. A few days later, on the charge of ob- 
structing the fulfilment of the Reconstruction Acts, Comp- 

1 Savannah News, January 9, 1868. 
'Atlanta New Era, January 10, 1868. 

3 Report of General Meade in Report of the Secretary of War, 1868-9, 
vol. i, pp. 74-130. 



179] 



180 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [t8o 

troller-General John T. Burns and Secretary of State N. C. 
Barnett were removed by General Meade and Captain Chas, 
Wheaton was appointed to fill both offices. 1 Governor 
Jenkins went to Washington, carrying the great seal of the 
state and about $400,000, which he placed in New York to 
secure the public debt. He filed a bill of complaint in the 
Supreme Court against U. S. Grant of Illinois, Geo. G. 
Meade of Pennsylvania, Thos. H. Ruger of Wisconsin, 
and C. F. Rockwell of Vermont for illegal seizure of the 
state's property and for imprisonment of the state treasurer, 
and asked injunction against said parties from furthe~ 
spoliation of the state. 2 

The conservative press of Georgia commended Governor 
Jenkins and condemned General Meade vigorously. The 
hope for a milder administration vanished and no chance 
was left that Meade would not follow in Pope's arbitrary 
steps. In the appointment of military officers to the places 
of the removed officials, instead of Georgia radicals, the 
Augusta Constitutionalist took solace thus : " If Meade has 
outraged the Democratic element of the state, he has not 
given the expected comfort to the rapacious harpies who 
hungered and thirsted for the removal of Governor Jenkins 
and Treasurer Jones as a preliminary to stepping into the 
places thus vacated." 3 

So much pressure was brought to bear upon General 
Meade by ardent ^constructionists and thirsters after office 
for widespread removal of office holders, that he established 
a system by which all accusations against officers should be 
made in writing, and the accused have opportunity to make 

1 Report of General Meade, op. ext., p. 88. 
* 6 Wallace, 241. 

8 Atlanta New Era, January 14, 16, 1868, gives quotations from various 
Georgia papers on the removal of Jenkins. 



l8i] MILITARY RULE 1S1 

defense. 1 In all it was estimated that about twenty state 
officers were removed and about seventy appointed. 2 There 
were numerous cases of the interference by military author- 
ity with ordinary civil government. In Columbus the muni- 
cipal government was run by military officers; in Augusta 
the mayor and council appointed by General Pope were in- 
vestigated under charges of maladministration by officers 
under Meade's direction; also a military commissioner was 
sent to examine the mayor of Savannah on the charge of 
unfair treatment of negroes in the mayor's court; the tax 
collector of Savannah was arrested on military authority 
for refusing to carry out the general order to collect taxes 
in conflict with the order of Governor Jenkins. In Jasper 
County the sheriff and the coroner were put under arrest by 
the military, and in Georgetown, in Southwest Georgia, a 
jailor was arrested for having chained a negro prisoner. 
Further, General Meade caused the removal from the su- 
perior court of the case of a man charged with shooting a 
colored woman, on the ground that prejudice against the ac- 
cused would prevent a fair trial. 3 

In regard to the use of the military commission as a 
tribunal of justice, General Meade, in answer to a charge 
against him for tyrannical use of military power, reported 
that in his whole district, Georgia, Florida and Alabama, 
only thirty-two persons were so tried and only one sentence 
was carried out. 4 In cases where military superseded civil 
authority under General Meade's command, there is no evi- 
dence of any attempt to oppress one class, the native whites 
opposed to reconstruction, for the benefit of another, the 

1 Report of the Secretary of War, 1868-9, vol. i, p. 76. 
8 Woolley, Reconstruction of Georgia, p. 46. 

8 Savannah News, January 17, February 5, 18, June 11, 1868; Augusta 
Chronicle, February 7, 22, 1868; Atlanta Constitution, June 18, 1868. 

4 Report of the Secretary of War, 1868-9, vol. i, p. 80. 



182 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [i% 2 

radicals. Interference was generally in behalf of order, jus- 
tice and the full execution of the Reconstruction Acts. 
Some orders were issued looking especially to the protec- 
tion of the freedmen. All civil courts and officers whose 
duty was to provide aid were ordered to grant it without 
discrimination as to race. In jails and prisons colored per- 
sons were to receive the same quantity and quality of food 
as whites, and sheriffs received the same fees for victual- 
ing all classes of prisoners. Near election time, an order 
forbade employers to interfere with the voting of employees, 
by threat to discharge or otherwise. And on the other hand, 
he issued an order to protect the employer from too fre- 
quent enticement of his hands to meetings by political agi- 
tators. 

In matters concerning the freedom of the press and 
individual liberty General Meade was somewhat milder 
than General Pope. He modified the newspaper order of 
August 12, 1867, excluding from patronage only those 
papers which hindered civil officers appointed by military 
authority. As election time approached a warning was 
issued that persons detected in threatening violence, work- 
ing with secret societies, or publishing incendiary material, 
would be punished by military officers. At this time Gen- 
eral Meade notified General Grant of the need of an extra 
regiment. Secret organizations were causing disturbance in 
Georgia as in Alabama and Tennessee, with the object of 
driving out obnoxious men and intimidating voters. Peo- 
ple were getting alarmed and negroes excited as election 
time approached. As a matter of public welfare, General 
Meade by military order declared certain provisions of the 
new state constitution immediately in force as soon as they 
were agreed upon in the convention. This was done in the 
case of the relief law. As soon as the convention passed 
the relief bill on December 12, 1867, creditors began im- 



MILITARY RULE 



mediate pressure upon their debtors before the law could be 
legally ratified. Upon petition from various sources Gen- 
eral Meade, on January 16, 1868, declared the provisions 
of the relief act in force until action should be taken by 
popular ratification. 1 

Shortly before military control was withdrawn and the 
newly-elected state administration put into office, General 
Meade showed that he was out of sympathy with the radi- 
cal group of Republicans, Governor-elect Bullock and his 
friends. When General Grant suggested to Meade that the 
newly-elected officers should displace the military governor, 
comptroller and others, Meade made the objection that 
Bullock would appoint officers on political grounds, whereas 
appointments should be made through the military com- 
mander on quite a different basis. Somewhat later, three 
weeks before military control was withdrawn, General 
Meade removed General Ruger to make room for Bullock 
as Provisional Governor. 2 

The differences between General Meade and Provisional- 
Governor Bullock became acute over the question of the 
eligibility of certain members of the legislature. 3 When in- 
vestigating committees of both houses reported that none 
was ineligible, Meade refused to go behind the returns as 
Bullock wished, concluding it would be the wiser policy to 
accept the judgment of the legislature itself than to set 
himself against it. 4 In his report to the General of the 
Army, General Meade stated the case thus : 

On reflecting upon this subject I could not see how I was to 
take the individual judgment of the provisional governor in 

1 Report of the Secretary of War, 1868-9, vol. i, pp. 75, 82-3, 100 ; 
McPherson, Reconstruction, pp. 320, 428; Woolley, Reconstruction of 
Georgia, p. 45. 

2 Ibid., pp. 104-5. 8 Infra, pp. 208-9. 
4 Ibid., p. 112. 



1 84 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [^4 

the face of a solemn act of a parliamentary body, especially 
as, from the testimony presented, I did not in several cases 
agree with the judgment of the provisional governor. The 
question was simply whether, in the construction of a law and 
in considering the facts of individual cases, I should make 
myself the judge, or take the opinion of the provisional gov- 
ernor, in the face of the official information that a parlia- 
mentary body had gravely and formally, through a committee, 
examined, reported, and acted on these cases. My judgment 
was decidedly that I had fulfilled my duty in compelling the 
houses to take the action they had, and that having thus acted 
I had neither authority, nor was it politic or expedient, to 
overrule their action and set up my individual judgment in 
opposition. 1 

General Meade saw in the controversy, what was actually 
the case, that the dispute was personal, centering in the 
struggle to control the election of U. S. senators. The 
upper house especially, with a Republican majority, could 
have purged itself had it wished. 

The real conflict was between the Bullock Republicans 
and the Anti-Bullock Republicans. The Anti-Bullock, or in- 
dependent Republicans, supported by the Democrats, gained 
the balance of power and elected the moderate instead of the 
radical candidates for the U. S. Senate. And herein lay 
the chief cause of Georgia's subjection to a second recon- 
struction. Governor Bullock, in a public speech at Albion, 
N. Y., his old home, attributed the failure of Georgia to be 
properly reconstructed to General Meade's refusal to purge 
the legislature. Since Bullock's own friends had been re- 
lieved of disability by Congress, only his political opponents 
would have been eliminated. Again, General Meade acted 
conservatively in refusing to sustain Governor Bullock in 

1 Report of the Secretary of War, 1868-9, vol. i, p. 79. 



MILITARY RULE 



I85 



the matter of the Camilla riot in South Georgia in Septem- 
ber, 1868, after direct military control had been withdrawn 
and General Meade was acting as commander of the De- 
partment of the South. Governor Bullock appealed to the 
President for a military force to be stationed in Mitchell 
County where the disturbance occurred, representing the 
riot as a movement on behalf of the Democrats to prevent 
the Republicans from holding a peaceable meeting. The 
houses of the legislature investigated the matter, reporting 
troops to be unnecessary, as the civil authorities were quite 
equal to the occasion. General Meade sustained the legis- 
lature as against the governor and refused to interfere. 1 

In July, 1868, steps were taken to effect the substitution 
of civil for military control in Georgia. On July 3d, Gen- 
eral Meade ordered Governor Bullock to effect the organi- 
zation of the two houses of the legislature on July 4th; on 
the 2 1 st, both houses ratified the Fourteenth Amendment; 
on the 22d, Bullock was inaugurated. General Meade re- 
ported to Washington that the state had complied with the 
demands of the Act of Congress of June 25, 1868, and on 
July 30th military authority was withdrawn. After Georgia 
and the neighboring states were organized under civil con- 
trol, the Second and Third Military Districts ceased to exist, 
and the Department of the South was constituted of North 
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Alabama. 
General Meade was in command with headquarters in 
Atlanta. Troops still remained, concentrated in Savannah, 
Atlanta, and Dahlonega. 2 On November 1st of that year, 
fifteen posts were held in Georgia, mostly along railroad 
lines. 

Such having been the salient features of the military 

1 Report of .the Secretary of War, 1868-9, vol. i, pp. 81, 124-5. 
*Ibid., pp. 114, 117. 



1 86 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [186 



administration of the ordinary governmental functions, 
let us examine the process of political reorganization that 
was in progress at the same time. In fulfilment of the 
Act of March 23, 1867, General Pope appointed a board 
of registration for each district, consisting of three mem- 
bers, two white and one colored, civilians where possible, 
who were required to take the Iron Clad Oath of July 2, 
1862. To encourage these officials to make a full registra- 
tion, their pay was fixed by the fee system at an average 
of twenty-six cents for each name enrolled. Colonel Ed. 
Hulburt was appointed Chief Registrar for Georgia with 
headquarters at Macon. Registration, which took place 
in April, 1867, resulted in a white majority in the state of 
less than two thousand: whites, 95,214; colored, 93,457- 1 
The counties in which registered negroes outnumbered 
whites were those in the cotton-belt and the fringe of 
coast-line counties, though several counties in the cotton- 
belt had a white majority. As compared with the list of 
polls (males between the years 21 and 60) of 1867 the 
registration shows in most cases just what is to be ex- 
pected, fewer whites and more negroes. 2 The smaller 
number of whites was due to the fact that some were 
disqualified and others voluntarily refused to register. 
Negroes were naturally more eager to enroll as voters than 
to be counted in the tax lists, especially when they were 
assisted in the former function by Bureau agents and Re- 
publican managers. But in some counties the increase in 
the number of negroes registered over those listed by the 
comptroller was decidedly abnormal, as in Baldwin, Bibb, 

1 Report of the Secretary of War, 1867-8, vol. i, pp. 334-5- 

2 Report of the Comptroller General, 1869. Table A, registration and 
elections in Georgia by counties, 1867 and 1868; Table B, number of 
polls in 1867. After revision registration was— Whites, 102411 ; colored, 
98507; polls, white, 120626; colored, 83168. 



i8 7 ] 



MILITARY RULE 



I8 7 



Brooks, Pulaski, Richmond, Spalding and Washington 
counties. In Richmond particularly, in which Augusta is 
situated, in 1867 there was a white majority in polls and in 
1867 the registration list gave a majority of a thousand to 
the blacks. 1 Even allowing for the drift of negroes toward 
cities, on the face of these figures there seems to be some 
proof for the charge that the Augusta clique of radicals 
brought negroes from across the river in South Carolina to 
register; and in Baldwin county, that negroes were regis- 
tered two or three times under different names. Of the 
five most important cities only Atlanta had a white majority 
in registration. 2 

Registration was probably fairly representative of the 
whites who were not disbarred. Leading conservative 
papers, such as the Savannah News and the Augusta Chron- 
icle, counseled citizens to register, whatever policy might 
seem wiser later, to vote or to refrain from voting. In an 
editorial, " The Duty of Registration the Savannah News 
said : " Georgia expects every man to do his duty. Then 
register without delay, and show that you reverence your 
noble commonwealth still, though she has fallen in her 
fortunes, and the heavy hand of adversity is upon her." 3 

^Richmond County, registration, whites, 2491; colored, 35°4i polls, 
whites, 1713, colored, 589; Bibb County, registration, whites, 1995 ; 
colored, 2596 ; polls, whites, 967 ; colored, 537. The marked decrease in 
the number of white polls from the number registered was due, per- 
haps, to the fact that whites, as well as blacks, were tax-dodgers, and 
also to the number of white men over sixty years of age in the cities, 
who could register but were not counted in the tax-list. 

2 Milled geville Federal Union, July 16, 1867; Augusta Constitutionalist 
in Brown Scrap Books — registration white colored 



Savannah 

Augusta 

Macon 



2240 

1574 
1353 
635 
1829 



3091 
1777 
1851 
653 
1653 



Columbus 
Atlanta 



5 July 



2, 1867. 



1 88 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [j88 

Herschel V. Johnson, in an open letter of July nth, advised 
citizens to register and vote against the proposed conven- 
tion on the ground that military government, distasteful as 
it was, was preferable to such government as would be es- 
tablished under the Sherman measures. 1 The number of 
whites registered, 95,214, as compared with the average 
vote in Georgia before the war, 102,585, estimated by Gen- 
eral Pope, shows, too, that the white people in general must 
have registered, if they were not disqualified. The number 
of those debarred from registering was variously estimated 
from 7,000 to 1 0,000. 2 

In the first election under the Reconstruction Acts, voters 
had to vote for or against holding a convention, and for 
delegates to serve in the convention, in case it should be held. 
In this election, held October 29 to November 2, 1867, the 
^constructionists had everything their own way. In the 
greater part of the state conservative citizens, opposed to re- 
construction, would have nothing to do with the election. 
This was in line with the policy advocated by most of the 
leading newspapers, such as the Augusta Constitutionalist, 
the Macon Telegraph and the Milledgeville Federal Union, 
The Savannah News advised its readers to go to the polls, 
vote for the best conservative, but refrain from voting on 
the question of holding a convention. 3 In most places no 
attempt was made by the conservatives to organize to defeat 
the ^constructionists at the election. The case seemed hope- 
less. But in Atlanta, where whites were in a majority and 
the conservatives had a better chance of holding their own, 
a Conservative-Union organization was formed for the dis- 

1 Savannah News, July 18, 1867. 

3 Report of the Secretary of War, 1867-8, vol. i, p. 334- Estimate 
given by Governor Brown, 7,000-10,000, in Atlanta New Era, January 
11, 1868. 

8 Savannah News, October 17, 23, 1867, quoting other papers. 



igg] MILITARY RULE jgg 

trict embracing Clayton, Cobb and Fulton counties. A 
public meeting was held in Atlanta on October 12th, fol- 
lowed by a district convention a week later. This conven- 
tion nominated a ticket " anti-convention, anti-reconstruc- 
tion, anti-radical for a " so-called state convention should 
such a body be decided by vote". 1 In most of the black 
counties conservatives made no attempt to vote. In Bald- 
win County, for instance, only seven white people voted out 
of a total number of registered voters of 1,700; in Jeffer- 
son, but one white man voted; in Mcintosh, only three 
against 524 blacks; and in Liberty, seven against 575 blacks. 
In Savannah, with 5,399 registered voters, 2,511 votes were 
cast, all but twelve of which were in favor of a convention, 
thus showing that the conservative whites refused to take 
part in the election. 2 The question of holding a convention 
was carried by a vote of 102,283 out of a total vote polled 
of 1 06,4 10. 3 

Of the one hundred and sixty-nine delegates to the con- 
vention thirty-seven were negroes, nine were white carpet- 
baggers, and about twelve were conservative whites. The 
great majority, then, were native whites, known as Scala- 
wags, because they went over to the reconstructionists. 4 
The counties most conspicuously controlled by negroes and 
carpet-baggers were Chatham and Richmond, in which 
Savannah and Augusta respectively are situated, and also 
Baldwin, Burke, Columbia, Dougherty, Houston, in all of 
which registered negroes largely outnumbered whites. 
Chatham with eight delegates had four negroes and three 

1 Reed, History of Atlanta, p. 232. 

1 Milledgeville Federal Union, November 5, 1867; Savannah News, 
November 4, 12, 1867. 

8 Official report of General Pope, Journal of the Convention of 
1867-8, p. 6. 

4 This tabulation is made from the list in the appendix to the Journal 
of the Convention of 1867-8, compiled by Z. D. Harrison. 



igo RECONSTRUCTION JN GEORGIA [190 

carpet-baggers. The Augusta delegation furnished the 
leaders of the radical wing of the convention and the strong- 
est Republican leaders in the state, among whom were R. B. 
Bullock, elected governor in 1868; Benj. Conley, President 
of the Senate in 1868; and Foster Blodgett, a faithful aid 
of Bullock. Augusta also sent to the convention J. E. 
Bryant, an agent of the Freedmen's Bureau and a skillful 
manipulator of the negro vote. The fifth member of the 
Augusta contingent was S. W. Beard, a mulatto. Among 
the negroes prominent in striving for leadership in the con- 
vention were A. A. Bradley of Savannah, Tunis G. Camp- 
bell from Mcintosh County on the coast, and H. M. Turner 
of Macon. Bradley, who boasted the name Aaron Al- 
peoria, was a notoriously disreputable organizer of the 
blacks in Savannah and made himself generally obnoxious 
in the convention. After being expelled from the conven- 
tion for gross insults offered to that body and its members, 
he held his own among the black voters of Chatham County, 
so that he was elected to the legislature in 1868, from which 
he was expelled on the charge that he had been convicted 
of felony in New York state and had served a term in the 
state prison. 1 Tunis G. Campbell came to the sea-islands 
of Mcintosh County soon after the war, where he organ- 
ized a so-called republic on St. Catherine's Island with 
himself as the government. Generals Steedman and Ful- 
lerton, investigating the Freedmen's Bureau in 1866, and 
others gave Campbell a bad name for inciting negroes and 
disturbing the peace. 2 Turner was a better sort than Brad- 
ley or Campbell. He came south as chaplain of a negro 

Journal of the Convention of 1867-8, pp. 294-6; Senate Journal, 
1868, pp. 121-2, 138; Savannah News, December 14, 1867. 

2 New York Herald, June 2, 1866; Leigh, Ten Years on a Georgia 
Plantation, pp. 133-6; Savannah News, December 14, 1867; Campbell's 
own account in Sufferings of the Rev. T. G. Campbell and his Family 
in Georgia. 



igi] MILITARY RULE igi 

regiment, then engaged as missionary in the African Meth- 
odist Church; but like others, the opportunity of the time 
gave him a more active mission in politics than in religion. 
He was a member of the legislature in 1868 and the next 
year was appointed by President Grant postmaster of 
Macon. 1 He remained in Georgia, a leader of the colored 
people, and became a respected bishop of the African 
Methodist Church. To a reporter of the Savannah News 2 
the negroes in the convention appeared well dressed and well 
behaved, with few exceptions. They usually sat together 
but looked to their white colleagues for their cues. 

Among the carpet-baggers in the convention were J. E. 
Bryant and C. H. Prince from Maine, and A. L. Harris 
from Ohio. Bryant's introduction into Georgia and into 
politics was by way of the Freedmen's Bureau. In 1867 
and 1868, as a member of the Augusta clique, he was an 
active supporter of Bullock and an efficient director of the 
negro vote in his district. His aspirations to the U. S. Sen- 
ate were not furthered by Bullock, who favored Blodgett 
instead, and later Bryant became a virulent opponent of 
Bullock when the split came in the Republican ranks. 3 
Prince served in the Union army, went to Georgia after 
the war, settled in Augusta and was elected to Congress in 
1868 after his service in the convention. 4 A. L. Harris, 
delegate from Savannah, a capable and helpful member of 
Bullock's party, was awarded a position on the state road, 
and in 1870 ably assisted in the reorganization of the legis- 
lature. 5 On all questions in the convention, negro and car- 

1 Macon Telegraph, April 21, 1869; Ku Klux Committee, vol. vii, 
p. 1084. 
* December 14, 1867. 

3 Atlanta Constitution, August 14, 1868. 

4 Biographical Congressional Directory, p. 937. 

5 Avery, History of the State of Georgia, p. 427; Atlanta New Era, 
March 5, 1868. 



192 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[192 



pet-bagger delegates, with few exceptions, voted steadily 
for Bullock's side. 

Unlike the constitutional conventions of South Carolina, 
Alabama, Mississippi and other states subjected to recon- 
struction in 1867, the Georgia convention was not managed 
by carpet-baggers and negroes entirely. It is noteworthy 
that in Georgia the most influential leaders in the work of 
the convention were men who, while not natives of the 
state, had resided there long enough to have established 
permanent interests. Such men were R. B. Bullock, Amos 
T. Akerman, H. K. McCay, and Benj. F. Conley. Bullock, 
a native of New York, came to Georgia in 1859. 1 Aker- 
man was born in New Hampshire, moved to Georgia in 
1854, and practised law in Elbert County. An old-line 
Whig and Union man, he opposed secession, but served in 
the Confederate army during the last year of the war. 2 He 
probably was the ablest lawyer in the convention, was not 
a Bullock partisan, and led the fight against the relief 
measure, which he termed the robbing part of the consti- 
tution. In 1870 he was appointed Attorney-General of the 
United States by President Grant. H. K. McCay, another 
competent lawyer, a Pennsylvanian and a Princeton grad- 
uate, had lived in Georgia since 1839, and practiced law in 
Sumter County. In i860 he supported Douglas, opposed 
secession, and was a defeated candidate for the convention 
of 1861 on the Union platform. B. F. Conley, who came 
to Georgia in 1830, was a merchant in Augusta. Unlike 
most of the leaders in the convention, he had held a politi- 
cal office in Georgia before the war, being mayor of Au- 
gusta in 1857-1859. 3 In 1868 he was elected President of 
the Senate, and hence was governor after Bullock's flight 
in 1871. 

1 Reed, History of Atlanta, pt. ii, p. 12. 

2 Atlanta New Era, March 7, 1868. % Ibid., March 8, 1868. 



193] MILITARY RULE ^3 

In the convention the chief line of cleavage was between 
the radical and the moderate Republicans, with the handful 
of conservatives acting as a small group by themselves. 
Some of the ablest men in the convention and the sincerest 
in sympathy with reconstruction were moderate Republi- 
cans. The moderation of the Georgia Constitutional Con- 
vention, in contrast to the conventions of other states, may 
be attributable in no small degree to the influence of ex- 
Governor Brown. Another important factor is to be seen 
in the large number of conservative Republicans, natives or 
long residents of the state, and the comparatively small 
number of negroes and carpet-baggers, always the tools, if 
not leaders, of ultra radicalism. After the convention had 
been in session for some weeks, before any important meas- 
ures were agreed upon, Governor Brown was invited to 
speak before the convention. In his address on January 
9, 1868, he urged the delegates to meet the demands of 
Congress by extending suffrage to negroes, but not to go 
over and beyond what was asked by conferring the right 
to serve on juries or to hold office. For the protection of 
the debtor class he recommended to the convention a liberal 
homestead exemption and provision against prosecution for 
debts incurred before June, 1865. 1 

The most important work of the convention concerned 
relief for debtors, the franchise, education, and organiza- 
tion of the judiciary. Of these the question of relief was 
the most vigorously contested and consumed more time in 
the convention than any other subject. In the election of 
delegates, relief was taken up by the radical Republicans to 
win over the whites who might not ordinarily be sympa- 
thetic with reconstruction. In October, just before the 

1 Atlanta New Era, January 11, 1868. For further discussion of the 
relief question, see letter by Brown to J. R. Parrott, president of the 
convention, in Brozmi Scrap Books. 



I 9 4 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ig^ 

election, Hulburt, who was chief registrar in 1867 under 
appointment from General Pope, issued the following cir- 
cular : 1 

Let the motto of the Reconstruction Party be " Convention 
and Relief.' , 

The country is heavily in debt. Multitudes of executions 
are ready to be levied. 

The Stay Law is practically dead. Several Superior Court 
Judges, Honorable Hiram Warner among the number, have 
ruled the Stay Law unconstitutional. 

Judge Warner is now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. 

General Pope has refused to grant relief in the premises. 

Executions will now be levied and thousands sold out and 
rendered bankrupt, unless something be done speedily. 

Good men will suffer seriously unless some aid is granted. 

The Convention is now our only hope. 

Let the platform of all reconstruction candidates for the 
Convention be " Reconstruction and Relief," and we will sweep 
the state by thousands. 

Set the ball in motion. 

One of the first acts of the convention was to pass an act 
for temporary relief, introduced by R. B. Bullock, to sus- 
pend levies until the convention should take action on re- 
lief. 2 On January 9th, the second day of the session after 
the Christmas holidays, the committee on relief, one of 
the standing committees of the convention, made its first 
report. After a heated contest, in which Bullock led the 
side in favor of relief and A. T. Akerman championed the 
opponents, a relief measure was finally agreed upon. The 
ordinance adopted became a section of the constitution. 3 It 

1 Savannah News, September 21, 1867. 

2 Journal of the Convention of 1867-8, pp. 23, 202-6, 250-4. 

3 Constitution of 1868, Article V, (Judiciary), sec. xvii. The greater 
part of this article was stricken out by the legislature of 1868, acting 
under the Act of Congress of June 25, 1868. 



195] MILITARY RULE ig$ 

provided that jurisdiction should be denied to all courts 
in the state over contracts prior to June i, 1865, with the 
following main exceptions and specifications: where the 
debt grew out of a trust for the benefit of minors and where 
the property or proceeds remained in the hands of the 
trustee; in debts against corporations; in debts for prop- 
erty sold, where less than one-third of the purchase money 
had been paid, and where the debtor still held the property 
or proceeds ; in debts due to charitable institutions or insti- 
tutions of learning, and to mechanics and laborers ; in other 
cases the legislature might confer jurisdiction by two- 
thirds vote; courts might never have jurisdiction over debts 
arising from the purchase or hire of slaves; contracts made 
to encourage or aid rebellion were illegal; the General As- 
sembly might assess a tax on debts dating prior to June 1, 
1865, when collected by legal process. 

An examination of the vote on relief shows plainly that 
it was passed largely as a political, rather than an economic, 
measure. With only two exceptions every negro voted in 
favor and all but two carpet-baggers likewise voted for 
relief. These two classes were presumably of all members 
in the convention the freest from debts contracted in 
Georgia prior to June, 1865. Those opposed to the relief 
measure declared it a cheat and a swindle, a trick to catch 
the vote of the ignorant debtor. Linton Stephens, in a 
speech before the Democratic clubs of Richmond County, 
said that the relief features of the constitution were a snare, 
that they would not hold for one moment before the U. S. 
Courts. 1 

In addition to the relief measure, the convention adopted 
as part of the constitution a homestead privilege of $2,000 
in real and $1,000 in personal property, to be exempt, except 



1 Augusta Chronicle, April 5, 1868. 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [196 

for payment of taxes and for money borrowed for improv- 
ing, for purchase of, for labor or material used thereon. 1 

The report of the committee on franchise, made by the 
chairman, J. E. Bryant, was decidedly more radical than 
the section of the constitution finally adopted by the con- 
vention. In addition to the fulfilment of the Reconstruction 
Acts by extending suffrage to negroes, the committee's 
recommendation excluded from registration, voting and 
holding office, until January 1, 1869, those disqualified from 
office by the Fourteenth Amendment and those disquali- 
fied from registration under the Reconstruction Acts, until 
their rights should be restored by Congress. Another im- 
portant section provided that all qualified electors, and none 
others, should be eligible to office. 2 By a vote of 1 16-15, 
the disqualification clause was dropped; 3 and by 126-12, the 
section concerning office-holding was stricken out. 4 Thus, 
by deliberate vote, with only twelve contrary, the clause dis- 
tinctly conferring the right to hold office upon negroes was 
eliminated, negroes themselves voting in the affirmative. 
This vote is significant in connection with the action taken 
by the first legislature in expelling negro members on the 
ground of their ineligibility under the constitution. This, 
it seems, was nothing more nor less than a political trick. It 
was represented to the blacks that they were eligible anyway 
without distinct provision; and the omission was used as 
an appeal for ratification to the white voter, who would 
object to negro office-holding. At least it was so used as a 
two-edged sword in the campaign on the adoption of the 

1 lonrnal of the Convention of 1867-8, pp. 405-6; Constitution, 
Article VII. 

1 Journal of the Convention, pp. 148-150. 

3 Ibid., pp. 209-300. 

4 Ibid., pp. 31 1-2. 




197] MILITARY RULE igy 

Constitution in April, 1868. There was a strong suspicion 
that ex-Governor Brown was behind this scheme to carry 
Cherokee Georgia, on the anti-negro-office-holding quality 
of the constitution. 1 Then, if the Augusta clique elected its 
men in the black belt, the legislature could bestow the right 
on negroes. 2 The franchise section of the constitution gave 
the suffrage to males, twenty-one years of age, who had 
resided six months in the state and thirty days in the 
county, and had paid taxes for the year next previous to the 
election. 3 

In the matter of education, the constitution contained a 
provision that the General Assembly at its first session after 
the adoption of the constitution should provide a general 
system of education, forever free to all the children of the 
state. As a school fund the constitution set apart the poll 
tax, the existing school fund, and some special taxes. 4 

In its main features the work of the constitutional con- 
vention was decidedly more moderate than the reconstruc- 
tion work in other Southern states. No disqualifications 
were made in the right of suffrage and in no respect did 
the members of the Georgia convention out-radical the radi- 
cals of Congress. They fulfilled the demands of the Re- 
construction Acts but did not go over and beyond the re- 
quirements made of them. This moderation was due to 
several circumstances : to the fact that negroes did not 
heavily overbalance the whites, as in South Carolina, Ala- 
bama, Mississippi and Louisiana; that many respectable 

1 The Cherokee section of Georgia was the northwest, where popu- 
lation was largely white, and where there was strong prejudice against 
negroes. 

2 Savannah News, February 20, 1868. 
8 Constitution, Article II. 

4 Constitution, Article VI. Journal of the Convention, pp. 151-4; 
477-9- 



I9 8 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [198 

white men, some of whom were of Northern birth but of 
long residence in Georgia, took active part in the business 
of the convention, assuming the leadership that in other 
states was held by adventurers from the North; and in large 
measure to the fact that the personal influence of ex-Gov- 
ernor Brown was potent with reconstruction leaders on the 
side of moderation. 



CHAPTER VIII 



Organization of the Reconstruction Government 

After the work of the convention was completed and 
a new constitution framed, the next step in the process 
of reconstruction was the ratification of the constitution 
by popular vote and the election of state officers and 
representatives to Congress. The election of state offi- 
cers and the vote on the constitution were ordered by- 
General Meade for the same time, beginning April 20th 
and continuing four days. To secure a peaceful election 
and a large negro vote, General Meade issued various 
orders for the conduct of the election. He forbade the 
assembling of armed bodies of men to discuss political 
questions, and the carrying of arms at or near the polls 
on election day. Superintendents of registration and 
officers of the Freedmen's Bureau were ordered to in- 
struct the freedmen in their rights, a function they were 
not slow to perform. 1 

As we have seen, the Conservatives allowed the elec- 
tion for delegates to the convention to go by default. 
But soon after it met, leading Conservatives determined 
upon an aggressive policy. They began to organize a 
vigorous campaign and to use their whole strength 
to get control in the state election. In November and 
December, 1867, Conservative clubs were organized all 
over the state. 2 On December 5, 1867, the Conservative 

1 McPherson, Reconstruction, pp. 320, 321, 428. 

2 Milled g evil le Federal Union, December 31, 1867; Savannah News, 
January I, 1868. 

199] 199 



200 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ 2 oo 

state convention met in Macon, the first state political 
convention after the war. It was not a fully represen- 
tative body, however, for only about half of the counties 
sent delegates and very few of the northern counties 
were represented. 

In March, 1868, the Democratic executive commit- 
tee, of which E. G. Cabaniss of Macon was chairman, 
issued the following appeal to the voters of the state, 
nominating Judge Reese for governor : 

Resolved, That the opinions and feelings of the National 
Democratic Party of Georgia, and the United States, upon 
the unconstitutionality and injustice of the Reconstruction 
Acts of Congress, are too decided and well known to require 
reiteration here. Their opposition to the actions of the several 
conventions called in pursuance of those acts, and to the effort 
to establish the supremacy of the negro race in the South, and 
to place the destinies of those states in the hands of adven- 
turers and irresponsible persons, is equally decided and well 
known ; yet warned by the fate of Alabama, and actuated by 
the instinct of self-preservation, we feel it to be our duty, to 
the extent of our power, to provide against every contingency ; 
and therefore would urge upon our friends to participate in 
the election which is to be held on the 20th of April next to 
the end that the best and wisest men — men permanently iden- 
tified with Georgia, and who will administer her government 
in the interests of the people and not for the purposes of 
plunder — may be chosen to organize the government, and to 
frame the laws under which we and our posterity may have 
to live. 

Resolved, That in view of these principles and objects, we 
recommend to the people of every name and faith who have 
the honor and welfare of Georgia at heart, that able jurist, 
conservative statesman, and incorruptible patriot, Augustus 
Reese, of the County of Morgan, as their candidate for Gov- 
ernor at the approaching election. 1 

1 Atlanta Intelligencer, March 14, 1868. 



20 i] THE RECONSTRUCTION GOVERNMENT 2 OI 

Judge Reese, however, had to withdraw his name, being 
ineligible under the Fourteenth Amendment, and Judge 
David Irwin was named in his stead by the Democratic 
Committee. When Judge Irwin, too, was pronounced 
ineligible by General Meade, the committee encountered 
great difficulty in finding a worthy leader who had not 
held some office before or during the war. Before nom- 
inating another candidate the committee consulted Gen- 
eral Meade and received his sanction to the eligibility of 
General John B. Gordon. 1 

In the Republican ranks rivalry for the nomination for 
governor boded ill for the party for a time. Col. H. P. 
Farrow was a prominent candidate for the place and had 
a strong following in the state, but Rufus B. Bullock 
dominated the constitutional convention. 2 The Bullock 
men, with Foster Blodgett at the head, as chairman of 
the Union Republican Central Committee for Georgia, 
managed to convert the constitutional convention into a 
party nominating convention. On March 2d, the follow- 
ing notice was issued from the Union Republican Cen- 
tral Committee, signed by Blodgett as chairman and J. E. 
Bryant as secretary : 

As delegates to the Constitutional Convention were elected 
by an almost unanimous vote of the Republicans of Georgia, 
the delegates of the Convention are requested to meet at noon 
on March 7th to form a nominating- convention to nominate 
governor, candidates for Congress, and delegates to the 
National Republican Convention to meet in Chicago on May 
2nd. All nominations for the state senate, legislature, and 

1 Atlanta New Era, March 15, 25, April 5, 1868; McPherson, Recon- 
struction, p. 320. 

2 Savannah News, March 11, 1868; Avery, History of the State of 
Georgia, p. 383. 



202 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [202 



county officers are to be made by the people in the districts 
and counties. 1 

At the meeting, Bullock's nomination was carried, and 
the threatened rupture between the two factions was 
averted when Colonel Farrow announced a few days later 
that he accepted the nomination of Bullock and would 
stump the state for him. 2 For their platform in the cam- 
paign the Republicans put forward the new state consti- 
tution which they had framed, as a statement of their 
political principles. 3 

In the greater part of the state the rule of radicals was 
vigorously contested by Conservatives, whose policy was 
to defeat the constitution and vote for the Conservative 
ticket. 4 The complete success of their plan would render 
the election of Gordon of no avail, would defeat the plan 
of reconstruction mapped out by Congress, and would 
continue military control. But military rule, frankly 
tyrannical, was deemed preferable to civil government 
run by negroes, Northern adventurers and unscrupulous 
native politicians. The program of the Republicans was 
to secure the ratification of the constitution and the 
election of Bullock, though there was a group of moder- 
ates who advised voting for the constitution and for 
Gordon, instead of Bullock. 5 The strength of these in- 
dependents, together with some Democrats who thought 
it best to accept the constitution, accounts for the fact 
that the vote for Gordon was considerably larger than the 

1 Atlanta New Era, March 6, 1868. 

2 Ibid., March 12, 1868. When Bullock became governor, Farrow was 
appointed Attorney-General. 

3 Ibid., March n, 1868. 

4 Augusta Chronicle, March 6, 1868; Savannah News, April, 1868; 
Avery, op. cit., pp. 383-4. 

5 Avery, op. cit., p. 384. 



203] THE RECONSTRUCTION GOVERNMENT 203 

vote against the constitution. 1 The fundamental issue in 
the campaign was the restoration of conservative white 
rule. The relief feature of the constitution was pressed 
forward by the Republicans as a means of attracting the 
vote of the debtor class of whites. During the campaign, 
newspapers were full of notes and campaign views, in 
contrast to the situation in the previous winter, when 
they paid scant attention to the proceedings of the con- 
vention or to politics in general. 2 Numerous political 
handbills were circulated by both parties. One, issued 
by the Democratic Conservatives, made the following 
arraignment of the constitution : 3 

It establishes social, political, and educational equality of 
whites and blacks. 

It would result in depreciation of property and a fearful in- 
crease of taxation. 

It did not originate with the people of Georgia, but in 
Washington — framed by adventurers from New England, by 
convicts from penitentiaries, 4 and by ignorant negroes from 
the cornfields. 

At least 20,000 whites are excluded at this election. 

The constitution is a falsehood to entrap people to accept it 
through the Relief promises, though it is known it will not 
stand court decisions, being contrary to the U. S. Constitution. 

1 In every district Gordon's vote outran the vote against the constitu- 
tion and Bullock's vote was less than that for ratification. Report of 
Comptroller General, 1869, Table A. 

2 The Savannah News, for instance, in December, 1867, while the 
convention was in session, gave only brief notices of the proceedings 
when it was giving several columns to a Methodist Conference. 

3 This and the following handbills are in the possession of Mrs. 
V. P. Sisson of Kirkwood, Ga., to whom I am indebted for the use 
of them. 

4 Refers to A. A. Bradley, a negro delegate from Savannah, who 
served a term in a New York prison. 



204 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



And another : 

White men of Georgia ! Read and Reflect ! Rescue 
Georgia ! 

The issue involved in the election on the 20th of April is 
whether or not Georgia shall pass into the hands of negroes 
and Yankee political adventurers ! Can Georgians rule 
Georgia ? They can ! Then go to the polls and vote the 
Democratic-Conservative ticket. 

Both parties appealed to the passions of the poor 
whites, the Conservatives by arousing them against the 
domination of negroes, and the Republicans by stirring 
up jealousy against the former leading class. Of the latter 
kind of appeal the following 1 is a good example, addressed 
by the Republicans to the Poor White Men of Georgia : 

Be a man ! Let the slave-holding aristocracy no longer 
rule you. Vote for a constitution which educates your chil- 
dren free of charge ; relieves the poor debtor from his rich 
creditor ; allows a liberal homestead for your families ; and 
more than all, places you on a level with those who used to 
boast that for every slave they were entitled to three-fifths of 
a vote in congressional representation. Ponder this well be- 
fore you vote. 

In the outcome of the election, the Republicans secur- 
ed the state ticket, electing Bullock by a majority of 
71 71, and ratifying the constitution by a majority of 
1 7, 972. 2 The election of the members of the legislature 
was so close that it was doubtful which party would con- 
trol. Bullock carried most of the counties where a ma- 
jority of the registered voters were negroes, and also 
nine of the white counties in Northeast Georgia, three 
in the northwest and three on the southern border. It 

1 In Brown Scrap Books. 

3 Report of the Comptroller-General, 1869, Table A. 



205] 



THE RECONSTRUCTION GOVERNMENT 



205 



is noteworthy that fifteen counties in which negro regis- 
tered voters outnumbered whites were carried by Gordon. 1 




to 









Republ ictrr? - April and 
November 1868 

Republican "April 
Democatic -November 1868 



X Majority of registered voters 
colored in 1867 

1 These counties were Elbert, Spalding, Crawford, Upson, Houston, 
Chattahoochee, Stewart, Quitman, Clay, Randolph, Baker, Early, Sumter, 
Lowndes, Washington. 



206 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [206 

It is difficult to determine whether the result came 
with a moderate degree of fairness or not. In some of 
the black counties carried by the conservatives, Ku Klux 
bands doubtless did much toward achieving the result by 
intimidating negroes to keep them away from the polls. 
With all the machinery of election in their hands the 
Republicans had full opportunity to doctor the returns 
to suit themselves. Charges of unfairness were made on 
both sides. Savannah and Augusta papers stated that 
droves of negroes were brought over from South Caro- 
lina, and that negroes who appeared with a Democratic 
ticket were set upon by radicals and prevented from vo- 
ting. In Augusta an affidavit was made by three citizens 
to the effect that Blodgett had four negroes from Lin- 
coln County take the voter's oath and vote, although 
they had been in Richmond County less than ten days, 
the legal term of residence. 1 The same complaint that 
negroes were brought in from adjoining counties was 
made in Macon. A conductor on a train said that two- 
hundred negroes got on the train at Hawkinsville and 
other points in Pulaski and Twiggs counties and were 
taken to vote in Bibb County. 2 The Conservatives looked 
upon Hulburt, the Republican superintendent and man- 
ager of the election, as a skilful and unscrupulous man- 
ipulator of the returns. An example of his strategy is 
given by Avery in his History of the State of Georgia , 
citing the following communication from Hulburt : 3 

1 Augusta Chronicle, April 21, 1868; Savannah News, April 23, 1868. 

2 Macon Journal and Messenger, April 21, 1868. 

8 Pp. 384-S. This document was published in the Columbus Sun 
and Times. 



207] 



THE RECONSTRUCTION GOVERNMENT 



207 



Office of Superintendent Registration 

Atlanta, Ga., May 8, 1868 



John M. Duer, Esq., Columbus : 

Dear Sir : Yours of 6th at hand. We want affidavits prov- 
ing force, fraud, intimidation, in violation of general orders. 
We must have them. Go to work and get them up at once. 

The names of the parties making- the affidavits will not be 
known to any person except yourself and the Board. They 
need have no fear on that score. You can swear them before 
Capt. Hill. Please go to work "sharp and quick." Get 
Chapman and other friends to assist you. 

The election in your county will be contested. Defend 
yourselves by attacking the enemy. 



It was generally understood that the lower house had 
a Conservative and the upper house a Republican ma- 
jority. But in April, 1868, parties were not definitely 
enough crystallized to make an accurate division possi- 
ble. There was no doubt as to the straight-out radi- 
calism of some and of the uncompromising conservatism 
of others. Between these two were the independent 
Republicans, who voted at times with one side and 
again with the other. The following classification is the 
result of an examination of the votes in the first session 
of the legislature on certain test questions, checked up 
by the classification in the Atlanta papers given at the 
time of the election : 1 

1 The test questions considered were : ratification of the Fourteenth 
Amendment, election of U. S. Senators, relief for debtors, negro ex- 
pulsion from the legislature. Avery gives the composition of the 
Senate as 26 Republicans and 18 Democrats. History of the State 
of Georgia, p. 395. 



Respectfully, etc. 
(Signed) 



E. Hulburt. 



208 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ 2 o8 

Senate — 17 Radical Republicans. 

10 Moderate Republicans. 
17 Conservative Democrats. 

House — 75 Radical Republicans. 

9 Moderate Republicans. 
88 Conservative Democrats. 

When the legislature convened, Bullock, acting as 
Provisional Governor under General Meade's appoint- 
ment, notified the commanding general that no steps 
had been taken to test the eligibility of members under 
the Fourteenth Amendment. 1 General Meade issued cer- 
tificates of election according to the returns sent him by 
the election managers, leaving inquiry into eligibility to 
each house. 3 Each house then appointed a committee of 
investigation. The majority of the Senate committee 
reported none ineligible; one minority member reported 
two ineligible ; 3 and another minority member reported 
eleven. 4 The Senate, in which there was presumably a 
Republican majority, voted to accept the majority report, 
those members whose eligibility was under question not 
voting. 5 In the House three members of the investiga- 
ting committee reported two to be ineligible, W. T. Mc- 
Cullough and J. M. Nunn; two of the investigating 
committee agreed that Long of Carroll County also was 

1 The Reconstruction Act of March 2d provided that " no person shall 
be eligible to any office under any such provisional government who 
would be disqualified from holding office under the provisions of the 
third article of said constitutional amendment." 

2 Report of the Secretary of War, 1868, vol. i, pp. 7&-Q. 
'J. L. Collier and W. B. Jones. 

* The two named above and J. C. Richardson, B. R. McCutcheon, 
Joshua Griffin, J. H. McWhorter, C. R. Moore, J. Harris, E. Thorn, 
J. G. W. Mills, E. D. Graham. 

6 Senate Journal, 1868, pp. 28, 32-5. 



209] THE REC0N S T RUCTI0N GOVERNMENT 2 og 

ineligible. The two minority members reported that 
they found none to be ineligible. The minority mem- 
bers based their report on the grounds that members of 
the legislature were not "officers" in the meaning of the 
law, and that all members of the House had been per- 
mitted to vote by the registrars, though the franchise was 
more exclusive than the right to hold office. By a vote 
of 95-53 the House accepted the minority report declar- 
ing none ineligible. 1 Accepting the judgment of the two 
houses as final, General Meade allowed the legislature to 
proceed to the transaction of regular business. In the 
organization of the two houses, the Radicals elected 
Benj. F. Conley as President of the Senate, by a vote of 
23-13, though the moderate Republicans and Conserva- 
tives together elected their candidate for President pro 
tern. (24-19); and in the House, by a close vote and a 
mistake made by one of the candidates, a Republican 
Speaker was elected. 2 

On July 21st the legislature passed the joint resolu- 
tion to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, the Senate by 
27-14 and the House by 89-71. 3 Those voting contrary 
were, of course, outright Conservatives, but in the Senate 
one Conservative voted for ratification, and two refrained 
from voting. In the House, six Conservatives voted for 
ratification and several did not vote. 

The first action that showed definitely the line-up of 
members was the all-important election of U. S. Sena- 
tors. The Bullock Republicans favored Jos. E. Brown 
for the long term, and Foster Blodgett for the short 

1 House Journal, 1868, pp. 31-45. 

2 Senate Journal, 1868, pp. 8, 48. Conley defeated Wooten for Presi- 
dent; Wooten defeated Harris for President pro tern. House Journal, 
1868, p. 12. R. L. McWhorter defeated W. T. Price, 76-74. 

3 Senate Journal, 1868, pp. 44-6; House Journal, 1868, pp. 49-51. 



2IO 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[2IO 



term. Alex. H. Stephens was the choice of the Con- 
servatives for the long term and for the short term they 
supported H. V. M. Miller. On the first ballot, Brown 
had 24 votes from the Senate and 78 in the House, a to- 
tal of 102, against Stephens' vote of 96, 15 in the Senate 
and 81 in the House. Neither had a majority. The 
Conservatives and moderate Republicans then formed a 
coalition, uniting on Joshua Hill, electing him for the 
long term by no votes to Brown's 94. 1 On the first 
ballot for the short term senatorship, Foster Blodgett 
got 73 votes, H. V. M. Miller, 93, with scattering votes 
for A. T. Akerman and Jas. L. Seward. On the joint 
ballot of the two houses most of this independent scat- 
tering vote went to Miller, who was elected by 120 to 
Blodgett's 72. 2 So the anti-Bullockites, the Conserva- 
tives and the moderate Republicans, acting together, 
showed in no unmistakable terms that they were in con- 
trol of the situation. 

The following letter from Robert Toombs to Alex. H. 
Stephens, written August 9, 1868, gives Toombs' inter- 
esting comment on the senatorial situation : 

As to the senatorship I preferred that Brown should be 
beaten by Joshua Hill to almost any other man. It is impos- 
sible for you [to] think worse of the scoundrel than I do, but 
it could only be done by a Radical, and there was political 
justice in making the earliest traitor 8 defeat the worst one and 
break down his party. I differed with you as to the policy of 
beating Brown. He had been [covert ?] Govr. of Georgia 
nearly two years, administering the patronage of the military, 

1 Senate Journal, 1868, p. 91; House Journal, 1868, pp. 100-108. 

2 Senate Journal, 1868, p. 92 ; House Journal, 1868, pp. 106-108, July 29. 

3 Joshua Hill was candidate for governor on a Union platform 
against Jos. E. Brown in 1863. 



2 1 1 ] THE RECONSTRUCTION GO VERNMENT 2 1 1 

and had the whole patronage of Bullock at his feet, 1 and put 
all these with the whole patronagfe, if he had been senator [it] 
would have cost us not far short of 10,000 votes. His special 
knowledge, especially of all the rogues in the State, is pro- 
digious, and I think it was about worth the State to beat him. 
Hill is a poor devil. His forlorn condition, powerless under 
the present circumstances, is conclusive evidence of his weak- 
ness, his inability to help himself or hurt us. I did my utmost 
to elect him, and ask of him no other favor than not to join 
us or speak to me. 2 

In the first legislature under the reconstruction con- 
stitution, three negroes were elected to the Senate and 
twenty-nine to the House. During the campaign, such 
supporters of the constitution as Jos. E. Brown main- 
tained that negroes were not eligible to office by the new 
document. 3 The Conservatives in both houses from the 
very first looked for an opportunity to eliminate the black 
brothers from their midst. The first open attack was 
made in the Senate, when Milton A. Candler, the Con- 
servative leader, included in the resolution concerning 
the eligibility of members under the Fourteenth Amend- 
ment the question of the right of the three negro senators 
to their seats by reason of their color. 4 This motion 
was incidental to the main question and nothing was done 
on the matter until July 25th, when Candler introduced 
the following resolution : 5 

1 A resolution was introduced in the House, July 28th, (Williams, of 
Morgan, Moderate) for the appointment of a committee to wait on 
the governor to invite him to make explanation as to his using the 
patronage of his office in a partisan attempt to elect certain persons 
to the U. S. Senate. — House Journal, 1868, p. 97. 

2 From MS. for which I am indebted to Prof. U. B. Phillips. This 
letter has since been published in American Historical Association 
Report, 191 1, vol. ii, p. 703. 

3 Speech of Brown of March 18, 1868, in the Atlanta Constitution, 
August 11, 1868. 

4 Senate Journal, 1868, p. 19, July 8. 5 Ibid., p. 84. 



212 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[212 



Whereas, ex-Governor Joseph E. Brown, one of the ablest 
lawyers of the Republican party of Georgia, as well as persons 
distinguished for their knowledge of constitutional law, held 
during: the late election canvass that persons of color were not 
entitled to hold office under the existing: Constitution ; and 
whereas such persons hold seats as Senators on this floor ; and 
whereas there are laws of vital importance to the people of 
Georgia to be enacted by the General Assembly, the validity 
of which should not be rendered uncertain because of the par- 
ticipation in their enactment by persons not entitled, under 
the Constitution, to so participate ; therefore be it 

Resolved, That the Committee on Privileges and Elections 
be directed to inquire into the eligibility of the several per- 
sons of color holding seats as Senators, and report at the 
earliest day practicable. 

At this time the resolution was laid on the table by a 
vote of 21-14, and the question of negro expulsion was 
not brought forward again until September 7th. In the 
meantime one of the negroes in question, the notorious 
A. Alpeoria Bradley, was expelled on evidence that he 
had served a term in the New York State prison, con- 
victed of the felony of seduction. 1 His seat was taken 
by his Conservative opponent having the next highest 
vote in the April election, Rufus E. Lester. 

On September 12th, after vigorous and lengthy argu- 
ment on both sides, the Senate, voting 24-11, passed the 
resolution to expel Tunis G. Campbell of the 2d district 
and George Wallace of the 20th, as " ineligible to seats, 
on the ground that they are persons of color, and not 
eligible to office by the Constitution and laws of Georgia, 

1 Ibid., pp. 13, 121-7, 129, 130, 134-5, 137- The resolution to expel 
Bradley passed after a vigorous contest, August 13. On the final vote 
Bradley was sustained by only five votes, Adkins, Higbee and Sherman 
in addition to his two negro colleagues. 



2 1 3] THE RECONSTRUCTION GOVERNMENT 213 

nor by the Constitution and laws of the United States." 1 
In their places candidates having the next highest num- 
ber of votes in the election were seated, thus adding two 
more to the Conservative party in the Senate. 2 In com- 
paring the votes on the test resolution of July 25th and 
the final vote on expulsion on September 12th, to find 
how it was that the Conservatives finally got together 
ten votes more and the Radicals ten less, we find that 
five came from every Conservative being in place, whereas 
five were absent on July 25th; Lester in the place of 
Bradley added one more to the Conservatives at the 
expense of the Radicals, and four changed sides — J. 
Griffin (6th district), M. C. Smith (7th), W. C. Smith 
(36th), and Richardson (32d). On other questions the 
first three had voted as moderate Republicans, but Rich- 
ardson had voted with the Bullock men. His divergence 
from his party on the question of negro office-holding 
was probably due to the fact that he represented the 
northern mountainous counties, White, Lumpkin and 
Dawson, where there was strong prejudice against 
negroes. 

In the House, where the Conservatives had more con- 
trol than in the Senate, the expulsion of negro members 
was carried with less difficulty. On August 26th a reso- 
lution was introduced declaring ineligible the following 
named persons, by reason of being persons of color: 3 
Allen of Jasper, Barnes of Hancock, Beard of Richmond, 4 

1 Senate Journal, pp. 243-4, 273, 277-8. 

2 Ibid., pp. 280, 324-6. 

3 House Journal, 1868, p. 222. 

A The names of these four, Beard, Belcher, Davis and Fyall, were 
later stricken out as they were so nearly white that their race was 
indeterminate. They remained in the House after the others were 
expelled. Ibid., p. 229. 



214 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[214 



Belcher of Wilkes, 1 T. G. Campbell of Mcintosh, Clai- 
borne of Burke, Clower of Monroe, Colby of Greene, 
Costin of Talbot, Davis of Clarke, 1 Floyd of Morgan, 
Fyall of Macon, 1 Gardner of Warren, Golden of Liberty, 
Harrison of Hancock, Houston of Bryan, Joiner of 
Dougherty, Linder of Laurens, Lumpkin of Macon, 
Moore of Columbia, O'Neal of Baldwin, Porter of Chat- 
ham, Richardson of Clarke, Sims of Chatham, Smith of 
Muscogee, Stone of Jefferson, Turner of Bibb, Warren 
of Burke, Williams of Harris. 

On September 3d the resolution to unseat the negro 
members passed the House, 83-23, 2 negroes not voting. 
It was clear enough that the Conservatives could carry 
the measure, so the opponents made no such resistance 
as in the Senate, where the outcome was doubtful. 

When Governor Bullock, by request, reported to the 
House the list of candidates having the next highest vote, 
he took occasion to protest against the expulsion of 
negro members as unconstitutional and illegal. The House 
showed its temper toward the Governor by returning his 
message, with the tart resolution that " the Constitution 
declares that the members of each House are the judges 
of the qualifications of its members, and not the Gover- 
nor. They are the keeper of their own consciences, and 
not his Excellency." 3 But while the legislators of Georgia 
may have been the keepers of their consciences, as they 
averred, they were not the keepers of the State of Geor- 
gia. Congress was master, as it plainly demonstrated in 
its refusal to admit Georgia's representatives, and in its 
order for the second reconstruction of the state under the 
military management of General Terry in 1869. How- 

1 See note 4, p. 213. 

2 House Journal, 1868, pp. 242-3. 

3 Ibid., pp. 296, 302-303. Vote, 71-32. 



215] THE RECONSTRUCTION GOVERNMENT 215 

ever unsuited negroes were to the important function of 
making laws for the commonwealth, the two houses were 
most unwise in their act of expulsion, as events proved. 
The Conservatives of Georgia made their mistake in be- 
ing strong enough to gain control too soon to suit the 
Radicals in Congress, who were still the real keepers of 
Georgia. The Conservatives made a like error of judg- 
ment when they elected A. H. Stephens and H. V. 
Johnson to the U. S. Senate in 1865 ; and again when 
they carried the state for Seymour and Blair in the pres- 
idential election of 1868. The trouble was that the Con- 
servatives considered solely what was best for the white 
people of Georgia, instead of viewing reconstruction as 
a national political problem and consulting the pleasure 
of the Republican leaders in Congress and the effect of 
Georgia proceedings on public opinion in the North. 

A test case was made by the Republicans in Georgia 
to have the courts decide the question of the eligibility 
of the negroes to hold office. In June, 1869, the case 
of White v. Clements was argued before the Supreme 
Court. Justices Brown and McCay decided in favor of 
the eligibility of negroes, with Justice Warner dissenting. 1 
After the decision of the court was rendered, the ques- 
tion arose : What bearing did it have on the status of 
the legislature ? Was the legislature bound to act accord- 
ingly and reinstate negro members, or could the status 
quo continue, on the basis that each house had the in- 
alterable right to determine the qualifications of its mem- 
bers ? The press was divided ; the Macon Telegraph, 
Athens Banner, Griffin Star, Atlanta Intelligencer, and 
Albany News holding that the law must be obeyed, un- 
pleasant though it be; and the Augusta Constitutional- 



1 30 Georgia 232. See infra, p. 360. 



2l6 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [216 



ist, Columbus Sun and Times, Augusta Chronicle, 
Columbus Enquirer and Savannah News agreeing that 
the decision had no effect on the legislature. 1 Alex. H. 
Stephens held the latter opinion. Writing from Craw- 
fordsville, June 29, 1869, to A. R. Wright of the Augusta 
Chronicle, he said that the decision of the supreme court 
seemed to him in accordance with law, for he himself 
thought the legislature in error in deciding colored 
members ineligible; yet the legislature was judge of the 
qualifications of its members and the court had no bind- 
ing power on the legislature. 2 However, the legislature 
had no opportunity to act or to refuse to act on the de- 
cision of the court, for it was not in session when the 
decision was rendered, and before the next session Con- 
gress passed the Reorganization Act. 

A comparison of Georgia in the first two years of re- 
construction, 1868-70, with her neighbors, Alabama, 
South Carolina and Florida, shows a marked moderation 
in her government, a lesser degree of reconstruction 
evils, less wanton corruption and extravagance in public 
office, less social disorder and upheaval. In Georgia, 
negroes and carpet-baggers were not so conspicuous, 
and conservative white citizens were better represented. 
Facts do not warrant the description of the reconstruc- 
tion government of Georgia as a negro-carpet-bagger 
combination. There were some of both classes in the 
constitutional convention and in the legislature of 1868, 
already mentioned, and many in the Federal service, par- 
ticularly as internal revenue officers, but they generally 
held minor positions. The big plums of office went to 

1 Macon Telegraph, June 18 and June 20, 1869, cites opinions of other 
papers. 

1 Letter printed in Macon Telegraph, July 4, 1869. 



217] THE RECONSTRUCTION GOVERNMENT 217 

native Republicans or to Northerners who came South 
before the war. Governor Bullock himself, strictly speak- 
ing, was not a carpet-bagger, though his opponents applied 
that opprobrious epithet to him. A carpet-bagger was, 
strictly speaking, a Republican adventurer who came 
South after the war and won political office by control- 
ling the negro vote. But Rufus B. Bullock came to 
Georgia from New York State in 1859, and was con- 
nected with the Southern Express Company in Augusta. 
During the war he held a minor position in connection 
with the Confederate army, assistant quartermaster- 
general. Personally, Bullock was an affable, likeable 
man, by no means lacking in ability. His career in 
Georgia was a variation of ups and downs. When the 
Democrats gained the legislature in 1871, Bullock re- 
signed from the governorship and fled from the State to 
escape certain impeachment. But unlike most recon- 
struction governors, he returned. In 1876 he came 
back to Georgia and underwent trial on the indictments 
made against him in 1872, and with insufficient evidence 
against him, was acquitted. He remained in Atlanta, 
engaged in business and enjoyed considerable esteem in 
the community until sometime in the nineties, when he 
left again under a cloud, having failed in business under 
rather questionable circumstances. In 1907 he died in 
his old home in New York State. 1 

The real head of Georgia at this time was not Gover- 
nor Bullock, but his guide and advisor, intimate friend 
and financial agent, H. I. Kimball. 

The state of Georgia seems to have had a dual executive, 
Rufus B. Bullock and Hannibal I. Kimball, from the 4th of 



1 Atlanta Constitution, April 28, 1907; Avery, History of the State of 
Georgia, passim. 



2i8 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [218 

July, 1868, until the last of October, 1871, and so inseparable 
were those, par nobile fratrum, that whenever you see the 
footprints of the one, you may look with confidence for the 
track of the other. 

This was the conclusion of the joint committee of the 
legislature in 1872, "to investigate the official conduct of 
Rufus B. Bullock", based on the strongest of circumstan- 
tial evidence. 1 Kimball was one of the most interesting 
of the newcomers brought by the opportunities of recon- 
struction, — not a carpet-bagger, for he did not devote 
his energies to seeking political office. He was a friend 
and patron of office holders. Without the presence of 
such patrons as Kimball, membership in the legislature 
would have been decidedly less lucrative than it was with 
his encouragement. Among the Republicans at the state 
capitol Kimball was a great favorite, the epitome of 
munificent and open-handed wealth and unbounded suc- 
cess. The negro sang his glories in a popular song with 
the refrain : 

H. I. Kimball's on de floor 
'Taint gwine ter rain no more. 

Mr. Kimball's chief enterprises were the construction of 
railroads by state aid. He was president of the Brunswick 
and Albany R. R., of the Bainbridge, Cuthbert and Co- 
lumbus R. R. and of the Cartersville and Van Wert R. 
R., all of which were involved in illegal use of state bonds. 
He purchased the Opera House, then in construction in 
Atlanta, remodeled it and sold it to the state for a capi- 
tol building. In a notorious case against the State of 
Georgia, the claims of the Mitchell heirs, he bought an 
interest in the claim, associated with ex-Governor Brown 
as a Mitchell " orphan ", and managed to secure from 

1 Report of this committee, p. 2. 



2ig] THE RECONSTRUCTION GOVERNMENT 2 ig 

the legislature a favorable settlement. This claim for 
property in Atlanta which was used by the state for ter- 
minal purposes in connection with the Western and 
Atlantic R. R., long lay dormant until the vitalizing touch 
of Kimball and others awakened it to activity before the 
legislature. 1 Kimball, likewise, was an important factor 
in the company which secured the lease of the state road 
in 1870. As was said of him in that connection, " he was 
in pretty much everything about that time." 2 As a part- 
ner in the so-called Tennessee Car Co. he secured funds 
from the state road, though the cars paid for were not 
delivered. 3 As semi-official financial agent for the State 
of Georgia and for the governor, Kimball had free-handed 
control over state bonds, rendering no account of his 
transactions. In 1870 a great hotel, the Kimball House, 
was built by him in Atlanta, and was commonly believed 
to have been paid for with state bonds. 4 The spectacular 
career of Kimball, who was so fittingly named Hannibal, 
came to a close in 1871, just coincident with the decline 
of the power of the Republican party, with the cutting 
off of supplies from state bonds, and with the flight of 
Governor Bullock from Georgia. Kimball, too, returned 
to Georgia after the excitement of the investigating period 
subsided. But in his later career, when he was no longer 
the right hand of the chief executive, he cut no such 
striking figure as he presented in the height of his glory 
in 1870. 5 

1 Committee to investigate the official conduct of R. B. Bullock, 1872, 
testimony concerning the Mitchell claims, pp. 1-21 ; and report of 
committee, pp. 12-17; Senate Journal, 1870, vol. iii, pp. 495-502, 518-9, 
552; House Journal, pp. 1 152-4. 

2 W. and A. Lease Committee, 1&72, p. 7. 

3 Bullock Investigating Committee, p. 30. 

4 Avery, History of the State of Georgia, p. 457. 

5 Ibid., pp. 447, 457 ; Turner, in Why the Solid South, p. 135. 



220 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [220 



In Governor Bullock's defence of his administration in 
answer to the charges made by the legislative committee 
of 1872, 1 he stoutly denied that there was ever a partner- 
ship existing between himself and Kimball. But if there 
was technically no partnership, whatever the relationship 
may be called, Bullock profited materially by the political 
influence he gave to Kimball. There was not a single 
enterprise of Kimball's which did not have the fullest sup- 
port of Bullock and his friends in the legislature. More- 
over, very damaging testimony as to the business rela- 
tionship of Bullock and Kimball was given by the cashier 
of the Georgia National Bank, used for the business of the 
state and for the private accounts of Bullock and Kimball 
as well. The cashier stated that Kimball constantly made 
large deposits to Bullock's private account, kept Bullock 
supplied with funds, and the bank officials were given to 
understand in unmistakable terms that the bank account 
was open to both. 2 If Bullock used his whole political 
power to foster Kimball's interests so extensively with- 
out receiving financial benefit himself, he certainly was 
more fool, if less rogue, than is ordinarily credible. The 
committee of 1872 came to the conclusion that a part- 
nership existed between the two, beyond the shadow of 
a doubt, basing its judgment on the cashier's statement 

1 Gov. Bullock, Address to the People of Georgia, October, 1872: A 
Review of the revolutionary proceedings of the late repudiating legis- 
lature — the slander and misrepresentations of the Committee exposed — 
A Republican administration contrasted with the corrupt and reckless 
action of the present usurping minority, under the lead of General 
Toombs. 

* W. and A. Lease Committee, 1872, pp. 203-213. Cashier E. L. Jones 
said that Kimball paid to Bullock's account between $30,000 and $50,000 
after the W. and A. lease was granted. 

Kimball, by the way, purchased a large amount of stock in this 
bank in 1870. 



1 



22l] 



THE RECONSTRUCTION GOVERNMENT 



221 



of banking operations, on Kimball's activity as financial 
agent for the state in the matter of disposing of bonds, 
on the fact that fraudulent grants of state aid to railroads, 
all supported by Bullock, were in Kimball's interest, that 
Bullock was eager to have the Mitchell claim settled as 
soon as Kimball became one of the litigants, together 
with corroborative testimony as to their relations in the 
Western and Atlantic R. R., given by A. L. Harris. 1 

Foster Blodgett, Bullock's faithful Man Friday, was 
chairman of the Republican Executive Committee in 
1868, doing more than anyone else to secure the nom- 
ination of Bullock as governor over the rival claims of 
H. P. Farrow. As a return for his services, he was the 
candidate of the Bullock forces for the short term in the 
U. S. Senate. Failing that, he was rewarded with a re- 
munerative place in the state road, first as treasurer and 
later as superintendent. In the latter capacity, though 
only a figure-head acting under Bullock's immediate 
direction in important matters, such as making appoint- 
ments and letting contracts, he came in for a large 
share of the charge of corruption and mismanagement 
against the reconstruction administration. Blodgett was 
a Georgian, resident in Augusta at the time that he made 
his first political appearance as member of the conven- 
tion in 1867. Along with Bullock he was a member of 
the "Augusta ring" that carried things much their own 
way among Republicans at the first election. Others of 
the same group were J. E. Bryant and Ephraim Tweedy, 
members of the Augusta ring and henchmen of Bullock 
in 1868. A. L. Harris, familiarly known as "Fatty" 
from his weight of something over three hundred pounds, 

1 Report of the committee to investigate the official conduct of R. B. 
Bullock, 1872, p. 3, et seq. 



222 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[222 



a native of Vermont and later resident in Ohio, also be- 
longed to the Bullock coterie. Trained for civil engi- 
neering, he drifted later into newspaper work and was 
editor and proprietor of several papers. 1 In 1867 he was 
a member of the convention from Savannah, and in 1868, 
when the plums were distributed, the supervisorship of 
the state road was his share. Though not a member of 
the legislature in 1870, he was the efficient instrument 
chosen by Governor Bullock to reorganize the senate. 
Though there was a large clearing-out of Democrats after 
General Terry's Purge, it was necessary for Bullock to 
make sure that his friends, rather than independent Re- 
publicans, secured control of both houses. In achieving 
this purpose Harris rendered faithful service. Ed. Hulburt, 
too, a Bullock friend in 1867, when he was superintendent 
of registration, found his reward in the state road as 
superintendent, a position which he held until differences 
with Governor Bullock led to his removal in Blodgett's 
favor. Hulburt was a carpet-bagger. 

The state officials elected by the legislature in 1868 
were not numbered among Governor Bullock's friends. 
The Comptroller-General, Madison Bell, the Treasurer, 
N. L. Angier, and the Secretary of State, D. G. Gotting, 
were independent Republicans. 

Of the six representatives sent from Georgia to the 
lower house of Congress in 1868, two were carpet- 
baggers, J. W. Clift and C. H. Prince. Clift was a native 
of Massachusetts, whose trade as carpenter seemed to 
fit him to serve in the Union army as a surgeon. In 
November, 1866, he began to practice medicine in 
Savannah, and in 1867, ne began to practice politics 



1 Avery, History of the State of Georgia, p. 427. 



THE RECONSTRUCTION GOVERNMENT 



223 



when General Pope appointed him registrar. 1 Prince 
from Maine was a man of limited education, a merchant 
before he entered the Federal army. After the war he 
settled in Augusta. Like many others of his kind he 
served his political apprenticeship in the constitutional 
convention. 2 

No enumeration of the influential leaders who deter- 
mined the work of reconstruction can be complete with- 
out further mention of the most significant of them all, 
the power behind the throne, ex-Governor Brown. Of 
all public men in Georgia in this period he was the most 
astute and the most powerful. He was first in seces- 
sion, first in reconstruction, and very nearly first in the 
restoration of Democratic home rule. Consequently he 
came up on top at every revolution of the wheel of 
destiny. In 1865 Governor Brown quickly acquiesced 
in the first scheme of restoration, made himself persona 
grata to President Johnson, and used his potent influ- 
ence in Georgia for the successful achievement of John- 
son's reconstruction policy. In the fall of 1866, when 
he saw that President Johnson had finally lost out with 
Congress, Brown counseled the adoption of the Four- 
teenth Amendment; and in the next stage, when the 
Reconstruction Acts were put forward, he became a re- 
constructionist of the new sort. When General Pope 
came to take charge of Georgia under military rule, 
Brown was among the first to give the general cordial 
greeting. Brown was friendly with Bullock and Blod- 
gett and their contingent, and to him they looked for 
influence to carry the constitution by popular vote, 
especially in Cherokee Georgia, Brown's stronghold. 



1 Biographical Congressional Directory, p. 553. 

2 Ibid., p. 937. 



224 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[224 



In return the Bullock party mustered all its strength in 
support of Brown for the U. S. Senate. In the next 
turn of events, when Republican rule was overthrown, 
among those in the vanguard for restoration, escorting 
the Democratic governor in triumph to the chair of 
office in 1872, was ex- Governor Brown. No one was 
more vilified by the Conservative press in Georgia in the 
years 1867 to 1871 than Jos. E. Brown. In June, 1868, 
the Atlanta Constitution published a series of articles in 
execration of Brown, entitled " A Prophet Foretelling 
his own Infamy" — Brown, in i860, foretelling disaster 
when the government should pass into black Repub- 
lican hands. The following is from the stinging pen of 
the Constitution s editor: "When a white man like Jos. 
E. Brown becomes the political foot-ball of dirty, inso- 
lent negroes, instead of giving him an additional kick, 
should not all good men rather lament his fallen state?" 1 
At a Democratic rally in Atlanta, at which Robert 
Toombs, Howell Cobb and Ben Hill spoke, the follow- 
ing signs were displayed on transparencies : 2 



Stings extracted in November. 

The B's are hived ! Perjured Blodgett, Traitor Brown, Con- 
vict Bradley, and the Thief Butler ! 

Joe Brown — a traitor to his section, and an outcast from 
society — Judas Escobes Brown. 

1 Atlanta Constitution, July 10, 1868. 
1 Ibid., June 17 and July 10, 24, 1868. 

3 Samuel Bard was the editor of the Atlanta New Era, an organ of the 
Bullock party in 1868. 



B's without Honey ! 



B - rown 
B - lodgett 
B - radley 



B - ryant 
B - ullock 
B-ard s 



225] THE RECONSTRUCTION GOVERNMENT 2 2$ 

On the whole, as far as personnel is concerned, the 
reconstruction administration of Georgia was not entirely 
bad, was even quite good in some members. This praise, 
faint as it is, is more than can be given to most of the 
governments in the Southern states in 1868. 



CHAPTER IX 



State Economy of the Bullock Regime 

Numerous charges of misconduct were brought against 
Governor Bullock; abuse of the pardoning power; the 
part he played in forcing the second reconstruction of 
Georgia, conniving at the so-called " slander-mill " to man- 
ufacture tales of outrages by the whites against negroes 
and Northern Republicans ; assistance in defrauding the 
state through his transactions with H. I. Kimball in con- 
nection with the purchase of the state capitol in Atlanta, 
the Mitchell claims and state- endorsed railroad bonds ; 
and his subsidy of the press and the bar by extravagant 
payments for unnecessary services. These and other 
charges were thoroughly probed by a committee of the 
legislature, appointed under a resolution of December i, 
1 871, after Governor Bullock had fled from the state. 
Under the guiding hand of Robert Toombs, as attorney for 
the investigating committee, no stone was left unturned to 
reveal corruption in the administration of the Republi- 
can governor. 1 It was the financial policy of the Bullock 
administration, however, its general extravagance and 
illegal use of state bonds, and the corrupt and inefficient 

1 Joint committee of the legislature to investigate the official conduct 
of Rufus B. Bullock, report and testimony, printed 1872. Senate: 
J. C. Nicholls, Chairman, and C. J. Wellborn; House: E. F. Hoge, 
S. A. McNiel, W. H. Payne. 

An earlier committee to investigate Bullock's financial transactions 
was appointed in 1870. A majority report supporting Bullock and a 
minority report against him were presented. 

226 [226 



227] STATE ECONOMY OF BULLOCK REGIME 2 2J 

management of the state road, that most seriously 
affected the interests of Georgia. 

In the matter of total expenditure Bullock's adminis- 
tration did not greatly exceed the Jenkins government 
of 1865-6. In the years immediately after the war, how- 
ever, large disbursements were necessary to relieve dis- 
tress and to meet other special needs not existing in 1868. 
It was more in certain classes of expenditure, in the cost 
of the civil establishment, in the contingent fund and in 
printing, that the Bullock management was either unduly 
extravagant or corrupt, probably both. Comparing 
1870 with 1866, for instance, we find that the civil estab- 
lishment cost the state $76,492.38 in 1870 and only $20, 
771.66 in 1866 : the contingent fund in 1870 was $36, 
284.44 an< 3 in 1866, $6,128.62 : for printing, $57,323.53 
in 1870, and $1,021 in 1866. The special appropriations 
of the 1866 legislature, including large funds to relieve 
destitution and to care for needy Confederates, amounted 
to $304,955.05, a puny sum when compared with the 
generosity of the Republican legislature of 1870, on 
whose appropriations $1,073,595.18 was expended. 1 In 
the sole item of printing, exclusive of the amount paid to 
the official printer for matters of public printing, $140,397 
was expended by Bullock during his term of office. Ex- 
ecutive orders and proclamations were published in forty- 
two papers. Newspapers were paid for publishing for 
weeks the offer of reward for the arrest of a criminal, 
then for publishing the pardon of the same offender after 
his capture and the payment of the reward. The Atlanta 
New Era, which in 1869 became the property of Bullock 
and his friends, was the recipient of lavish patronage 



1 These figures are taken in part from Woolley. Reconstruction of 
Georgia, p. ioi, checked up by the Reports of the Comptroller General. 



228 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [228 



from the state. Excessive attorneys' fees, not merely to 
Republican but to favored Democratic lawyers as well, 
were freely paid, it was claimed, in an attempt to subsi- 
dize the bar as well as the press. 1 One of the papers 
that evidently did not partake of Bullock patronage, 
published the following : 2 

Bullock's Soothing: Syrup. 

This is one of the greatest remedies recently invented. It 
is so effective that we give it a little " puff " gratis. It cures 

Excessive indignation 
Chronic disgust 
Hatred for infamy 
Persistence for right 

and many other complaints to which the Southern people are 
subject. Many cases heretofore considered obstinate, have 
yielded to its influence, and are now thoroughly cured. It is 
composed principally of a powerful green substance, collected 
by the tax-gatherers of Georgia, compounded by Dr. Bullock, 
and given according to the extent of the affliction. 

Price, Expressed favor for Bullock and the negro legislators. 

When a cure is not effected after thorough trial, the remedy 
will be taken back and no charge made. 

Special sources of leakage were pointed out by the state 
treasurer, N. L. Angier, in his controversy with Gov- 
ernor Bullock, as shown in the following items: 3 

1 Committee to investigate the official conduct of Rufus B. Bullock, 
pp. 17-20, 24. 

2 Milledgeville Federal Union, October 5, 1869, copied from the 
Americus Courier. 

5 Angier's report in Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, pp. 153-5. 



229] STATE ECONOMY OF BULLOCK REGIME 


22Q 




1855-60 


1868-70 


Amount expended for extra legal 


services $17000 


$36600 


Rewards for fugitives 


. 1400 


5IIOO 


Advertisements of proclamations 


. 5000 


98300 


Incidental expenses . 


. 2188 1 


2380O 



However, taxes were not heavily increased by the re- 
construction government. The rate of taxation remained 
about the same as that fixed by the Jenkins government 
in 1866. To meet wasteful and extravagant appropria- 
tions the governor and the legislature had recourse to 
bond issues, throwing the burden of debt on future gen- 
erations. 

The issue of bonds by Governor Bullock was the center 
of a far-reaching controversy, which played an important 
part in reconstruction history. The treasurer, N. L. 
Angier, a Republican but not a Bullock partisan, in Jan- 
uary, 1869, reported upon the state finances in such a 
way as to suggest that Governor Bullock was making cor- 
rupt use of public funds. Thereupon the two houses of the 
legislature appointed a joint committee to investigate the 
condition of the state finances. In 1870 the legislature 
was strongly Republican. Hence the majority report of 
the committee was favorable to Bullock. Two years later, 
after the Democrats gained control and Governor Bullock 
fled from the state, various committees of investigation 
were appointed, among which was the Bond Committee, 2 
consisting of T. J. Simmons, Garnett McMillan and J. 
I. Hall. The published findings of the committee con- 
tain the testimony of witnesses examined, besides re- 
commendations of the committee. The bonds under 
question were the state endorsed bonds of railroads, 

1 This includes incidental expenses for 1866-7, also. 

2 Acts of General Assembly, 1871, p. 14. 



230 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [23a 

currency bonds of a temporary issue under act of 1870, 
and 7 per cent gold bonds of 1870. Before the committee 
set to work it was impossible to know exactly what was 
the amount of the state debt, for bonds were issued irreg- 
ularly, some without the signature of the state treasurer 
and without proper registration. H. I. Kimball acted 
as semi-official agent for the state and for Governor 
Bullock, keeping no records, and Henry Clews was the 
financial representative of Georgia in New York. 

The situation of the debt in 1872, according to the re- 
sults of the committee's investigation, was as follows : J 



Bonds issued before 1868 $5,618,750 
after July 4, 1868 

endorsed railroad bonds 5, 733, coo 
other 6,831,250 

12,564,250 

Total state and endorsed bonds 18,183,000 

The real question of corruption and illegality arose in 
connection with the endorsed bonds of the railroads with 
which H. I. Kimball was associated, the Brunswick and 
Albany, the Bainbridge, Cuthbert and Columbus, and 
the Cartersville and Van Wert (later the Cherokee). 
In these three cases the committee recommended that the 
state repudiate its obligation, as the terms of the law 
granting state aid had not been fulfilled. In the case of 
the Brunswick and Albany, the most conspicuous of all, 
the conclusions of the committee were as follows: (1) 
The claims for damages made by the company against 
the state were based on false assumptions : for the Con- 

1 Bond Investigating Committee, 1872, pp. 13-14; Report of Acting- 
Governor Conley on the state finances ; Report of the Treasurer, 
1871, p. 10. 

1 Of the bonds issued before 1868, $1,718,750 was issued before 1861, 
and $3,900,000 more before 1866. 



231] STATE ECONOMY OF BULLOCK REGIME 23 1 

federacy and not the state seized iron from the road ; 
the iron taken was fully paid for ; and contracts with 
Governor Brown for transporting troops in 1861 could 
not be enforced as they were in furtherance of rebellion. 

(2) The bonds were issued and endorsed, not in accor- 
dance with the terms of the law, on the completion of 
twenty-mile sections, but before sections were completed. 

(3) The cost of construction was not commensurate 
with the aid granted and no investment by private par- 
ties was made. (4) A strong suspicion existed that 
corrupt means were employed to effect the passage of 
the Brunswick and Albany grants in the legislature. 1 

Under the terms of the Act of March 18, 1868, aid was 
granted to the Bainbridge, Cuthbert and Columbus R. 
R. on the completion of twenty-mile sections. Before a 
single mile was completed, Governor Bullock, in the 
office of H. I. Kimball and Company in New York, en- 
dorsed 240 bonds, which were never sealed or signed by 
the Secretary of State. Hence these bonds were con- 
sidered by the committee as not binding on the state. 2 

The bonds endorsed for the Cartersville and Van Wert, 
to the amount of $100,000, were given when only one and 
one-half miles of track were laid, and $275,000 more when 
three miles were laid, still incomplete, though the law 
called for endorsement on the completion of five-mile 
sections. No funds were ever paid in by private inves- 
tors. The investigating committee declared that Gov- 
ernor Bullock personally knew the incomplete condition 
of the road when he endorsed the bonds, and that 
Henry Clews also, with whom Kimball placed the 275 
bonds endorsed in August, 1870, knew that the endorse- 

1 Bond Investigating Committee, 1872, pp. 19-29, 49, 165; Bullock 
Investigating Committee, 1872, pp. 30-33. 

2 Ibid., pp. 34-5- 



232 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [232 

ment was premature and illegal. These bonds were pro- 
nounced by the committee to be null and void. 1 

The Act of August 27, 1870, provided for an issue of 
currency bonds to the amount of $2,000,000, intended 
as temporary, to be taken up as soon as gold quarterly 
bonds were ready. In 1871 Acting-Governor Conley 
reported that $1,500,000 of these were still in the hands 
of the following New York firms, who were unwilling to 
exchange the currency for the gold bonds intended to 
take their place : 2 

$800,000 with Henry Clews and Co. 
$530,000 " Russell Sage 
$120,000 " J. Boorman Johnston and Co. 
$50,000 " Fulton Bank, Brooklyn 

The investigating committee declared these bonds not 
binding, as they were canceled by the quarterly gold 
bonds. Further, there was no evidence that the state 
received any money on the bonds hypothecated by 
Kimball as agent for Bullock. 3 

The matter of the 7 per cent gold bonds was more 
complicated. The Act of September 15, 1870, provided 
for gold bonds without limit for the payment of bonds 
when due, for the payment of interest and coupons due, 
and for the appropriations made by the legislature. Be- 
fore 1872, $3,000,000 of these were issued, of which $250,- 
000 was given to H. I. Kimball in payment for the 
Atlanta Opera House, purchased for the state capitol, 
and $100,000 to John H. James for purchase of the ex- 
ecutive mansion in Atlanta. The rest were put on the 
market through H. I. Kimball and through Henry Clews 

1 Bond Investigating Committee, pp. 78 et seq., 150-51. 

2 Commercial and Financial Chronicle, January 20, 1872. 

3 Bond Investigating Committee, 1S72, pp. 152-4. 



233] STATE ECONOMY OF BULLOCK REGIME 233 

and Company, except $102,000, still unsold with Clews. 
The total thus disposed of was $2,548,000/ Clews and 
Co., as financial agents for the state, sold 1650 bonds, 
500 at 87 J and 1150 at 86 J. Out of the proceeds 
delivered to the State's account ($1,432,250), Clews paid 
$609,192.12 on drafts of Bullock and Blodgett, mostly on 
account of the state road. Since these bonds were au- 
thorized for the expressed purposes of paying bonds 
when due, interest and coupons due, and for appro- 
priations made by the legislature, the committee con- 
sidered payment of any part of the proceeds to the 
account of the State road as an illegal transaction. The 
remainder of the bonds were hypothecated by Kimball 
for an amount unknown. Of these quarterly gold bonds, 
the committee recommended that those issued by Bullock 
for property or sold in the market by his agents be rec- 
ognized as good and binding; those hypothecated on 
which money was borrowed by an agent of the state be 
returned to the treasurer and the amount borrowed, with 
interest and reasonable expenses for returning bonds, be 
paid by issue of new currency bonds or by cash ; those 
still held by Clews without legal right as collateral se- 
curity or otherwise constitute no liability against Georgia. 
Further, the investigating committee decided that the 
claims of Henry Clews and Co. for $47,145.50 and £1800 
be ignored, as Clews was a party to the misappropria- 
tion of state funds in paying drafts of Bullock and 

1 Commercial and Financial Chronicle, January 20, 1872. Report of 
Acting-Governor Conley gives the following as the account of the 7% 
gold bonds : 

Held by Clews & Co. for sale to secure advances made by them on 

currencies and others $1,750,000 

by Russell Sage and others 500,000 

deposited with Fourth National Bank, N. Y 300,000 

placed with A. S. Whiton, N. Y 100,000 



234 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [234 

Blodgett on proceeds from quarterly bonds for other 
purposes than those for which they were intended. 1 

But the bond question was not settled by the report 
of the investigating committee. Even while the bonds 
were under investigation and after the report was pre- 
sented, sales of bonds were made in New York. The 
Commercial and Financial Chronicle of July 22, 1872, 
noted that there was a fair amount of dealings in Georgia 
bonds in spite of the report of the committee. The 
opinion of the Chronicle was that the legislature would 
not carry out the recommendations of the committee, 
for it would impair the credit of the state to repudiate 
bonds on grounds purely technical. To direct public 
opinion against repudiation, Henry Clews and Co. pub- 
lished a card in the Atlanta Constitution, rehearsing 
their operations as financial agents for Governor Bullock. 
Admitting that proceeds of the bonds were misapplied 
and that the state failed to receive value for them, yet 
for the sake of the future credit of the state, they ad- 
vised that the legislature should not resort to repudia- 
tion. 2 In Georgia there was a wide difference of 
opinion on the matter. There was a significant group, 
represented by ex-Governor Brown, that favored com- 
promise, by recognizing the equity of the case by pay- 
ment of the actual amount received on bonds with inter- 
est. Leaders urging no compromise, but repudiation, 
were Robert Toombs, Ben. H. Hill, and W. M. Wadley 
of the Central R. R. The repudiation party prevailed, and 
in August, 1872, the legislature passed bills declaring null 

1 Bond Investigating Committee , 1872, pp. 159-163. 

2 Commercial and Financial Chronicle, January 6, 1872. See pamphlet, 
Reply of Henry Clews & Co. to the Annual Report of the Treasurer, 
N. L. Angier, January 12, 1872 ; also, Clews, Twenty-eight Years in 
Wall Street. 



2 oc:l STATE ECONOMY OF BULLOCK REGIME 

and void the endorsed railroad bonds and others desig- 
nated by the investigating committee. 1 To make the 
action perpetually binding, the Constitutional Conven- 
tion of 1877 inserted in the constitution a clause pro- 
hibiting the payment of the bonds thus pronounced ille- 
gal. 2 

State aid to railroads was a policy by no means dis- 
tinctive of the reconstruction period. Before the war 
encouragement was given by tax exemption or by sub- 
scription on state account to railroad stock. In the first 
period of reconstruction the policy used extensively in 
1869 and 1870 was tried — state guarantee of bonds of 
the railroad., for which the state secured a first mortgage 
on the property of the road. In December, 1866, the 
legislature agreed to the endorsement by the state of 
bonds for the Macon and Brunswick R. R. at the rate of 
$10,000 per mile for the fifty miles then completed, and 
at the same rate in ten-mile sections as the road should 
be finished. 3 In 1868, when the question of state aid 
came before the legislature, the senate committee on in- 
ternal improvements reported that all such bills ought to 
be laid over until the next session. In the unsettled 
political condition, with a treasury almost exhausted, the 
policy of supporting the railroads would, the committee 
believed, be injurious to the credit of the state. Already, 
up to September 8th, bills had been introduced calling 
for state aid to an amount in excess of three million dol- 
lars. . One member of the committee presented a minority 
report, urging that an exception be made of the Atlanta 
and Richmond Air Line, which would open a valuable 

1 Acts of the General Assembly. 1872, pp. 5-8. 

2 Constitution of 1S77, p. 44. 

* Acts of the General Assembly, i860, p. 127. 



236 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [236 

section of the state. 1 The Air Line had strong support in 
the legislature and the act granting bond endorsement 
to this road was passed by a substantial majority. A 
few days later a bill to lend the credit of the state to the 
South Georgia and Florida R. R. was passed. At the 
same session endorsement was pledged to the Macon and 
Augusta R. R. 2 

1869 and 1870 were the active years of state-aid grants. 
By the close of 1871 endorsements were authorized by 
the legislature to thirty-seven railroads. At the time 
that grants were secured most of the railroad recipients 
had existence only on paper or in the brains of their 
promoters. While the state made itself liable under 
certain contingencies for bond endorsement amounting to 
over thirty millions, it was unlikely that much of it would 
be called for within several years, if ever. The Macon 
and Augusta R. R. resigned its claim, finding it could 
make better loans independent of the state ; and the 
Atlanta and Richmond Air Line, having the same exper- 
ience, returned $240,000 of bonds endorsed by the state. 3 

In pursuance of these grants the only railroads which 
actually received endorsement of bonds before 1872 were 
the following : 4 



Brunswick and Albany R. R $3,300,000 

Cartersville and Van Wert. 275,000 

Cherokee 300,000 

Bainbridge, Cuthbert and Columbus 600,000 

South Georgia and Florida 464,000 

Alabama and Chattanooga 194,000 

Macon and Brunswick. . . ' 600,000 



1 Senate Journal, 1868, pp. 248-9, 259. 

2 Acts of the General Assembly, 1868, pp. 143-7. 

3 Report of Governor Bullock, July 5, 1871, in Commercial and Finan- 
cial Chronicle, July 22, 1871. 

* Bond Investigating Committee, 1872, p. 14. 



237] STATE ECONOMY OF BULLOCK REGIME 237 

Very serious charges of corruption in the legislature 
were made in connection with the bill to grant aid to the 
Brunswick and Albany R. R., one of the pet enterprises of 
H. I. Kimball.. In the Senate, on the motion of Milton A. 
Candler, a leading Democrat, an attempt was made to re- 
call the bill from the governor because charges were made 
that fraudulent means had been used to secure its passage. 
Hungerford, a Radical, retaliated with a resolution to inves- 
tigate the means used by the Central of Georgia R. R. and 
allied roads to defeat the Brunswick and Albany bill. The 
result was that the whole matter was tabled by a vote of 
20-19, Bullock's friends having the necessary majority. 1 It 
was commonly noised abroad that the Central led in an 
extensive and expensive lobby to prevent the grant of state 
aid to competing lines, while it was generally believed that 
Brunswick and Albany stock was freely distributed among 
members of the legislature. 2 The bond investigating com- 
mittee was able to put its finger on little direct evidence of 
corruption. Two facts pointing that way, however, were 
brought out in the testimony given before the committee. 
R. B. Hall, a member of the legislature from Glynn County, 
held preferred stock of the B. & A. R. R., for which he 
paid nothing; and E. F. Blodgett testified that his father, 
Foster Blodgett, who took active part in securing aid to the 
Brunswick and Albany, owned $15,000 in B. & A. bonds, 
received, he thought, from H. I. Kimball. 3 The same 
charges were made concerning bills of aid to the other 
Kimball enterprises, the Cartersville and Van Wert and the 
Bainbridge, Cuthbert and Columbus, which passed the 
legislature about the same time. 

1 Senate Journal, 1869, pp. 630. 665. 
3 Savannah News, March 12, 1869. 
3 Bond Investigating Committee, 1872, pp. 28-9. 



238 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [238 

As a matter of policy it was perhaps wise for Georgia to 
lend its credit for the construction of needed railways, and 
so contribute to the economic development of the state. 
But as the principle was actually applied by the Bullock ad- 
ministration, credit was given on political rather than eco- 
nomic terms with little gain to the real progress of trans- 
portation facilities. Funds obtained by the hypothecation 
of Georgia bonds, unfortunately, did not all find their way 
into cross-ties and iron rails and engines for the new roads 
of Georgia. The affairs of the state-aid railroads, especially 
those with which H. I. Kimball was connected, were so 
badly managed that all, with the exception of the South 
Georgia and Florida R. R., soon defaulted in payment of 
the interest on their bonds and went into the hands of 
receivers. 

Instead of being a financial asset the state road proved a 
heavy burden to Georgia during Bullock's administration. 
From 1868 until December, 1870, when it was leased to a 
private corporation, the history of the Western and At- 
lantic R. R. is replete with all the abuses to which publicly- 
owned utilities may be subject. It was managed primarily 
as an organ of patronage for the radicals in control of the 
state. Officials of the road were chosen, not because they 
knew anything about railroad business, but in the same way 
that U. S. consuls or postmasters were generally selected. 
Those high in office used the road to further their political 
interests and others used it for financial advantage as well. 
As a result of graft and incompetence, the road piled up for 
Georgia a debt of nearly three-quarters of a million dollars 
in 1868-70, instead of adding a substantial income to the 
state treasury, as it could easily have done under ordinarily 
honest management. 1 Before the war, under Governor 

1 Report of the joint committee of the legislature to investigate the 
oMcial conduct of Rufits B. Bullock, p. 29. 



2 39J STATE ECONOMY OF BULLOCK REGIME 239 

Brown's administration, the Western and Atlantic was 
brought to a good paying level, turning into the state treas- 
ury $25,000 a month and more. 1 In the first two years 
after the war, mortgage bonds w T ere issued by the state to 
repair heavy damages, and over S800.000 was spent in 
equipment and construction, placing the road in a fair 
condition to transact business satisfactorily. 

When Governor Bullock took charge of the state gov- 
ernment in July, 1868, old employees of the road were dis- 
missed to make way for his friends. The superintendent. 
Major Campbell Wallace, was replaced by Ed. Hulburt, the 
Republican superintendent of registration in 1867, to whom 
Bullock was indebted for substantial aid in his election as 
governor; Foster Blodgett, Bullock's henchman and candi- 
date for the U. S. Senate, w T as treasurer ; and A. L. Harris, 
another strong Bullock supporter, was supervisor. When 
the radicals split into two factions in 1869, Hulburt took 
sides against the Bullock-Blodgett group, opposing the sec- 
ond reconstruction scheme, and was therefore removed 
from office as superintendent. On January 1, 1870, Foster 
Blodgett took his place. Hulburt, disgruntled and disaf- 
fected, turned to the other side and became a bitter witness 
against Bullock before the investigating committee of 1872. 2 
Mr. Blodgett himself, testifying two years later before a 
committee of the legislature, said he knew nothing about 
railroad management — his business was to run the political 
part of it. The road had always had two or three times as 
many employees as were needed, he said, and passes were 
given freely to members of the legislature and to anyone 
whom they or the governor wished. 3 Several members of 

1 The W. and A. R. IR. paid into the state treasury in 1859, $420,000 ; in 
i860, $450,000. Report of the Comptroller General, 1865, p. 4. 

s Committee to investigate the IV. and A. R. R., 1872, pp. 53, 152 et seq. 
3 Joint committee of the legislature to investigate the fairness of the 
W. and A. R. R. lease. 1872. pp. 232, 235. 



240 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



the legislature were given offices. McWhorter Hungerford, 
an ardent radical and Bullock supporter in the legislature, 
held a position as shipping clerk with a salary of $100 a 
month and expenses amounting to $100 a month more; 
and when Blodgett became superintendent, Hungerford was 
made business agent with a salary of $200 a month and ex- 
penses. When a witness before the friendly investigating 
committee of 1870, Hungerford said there were a good 
many carpet-baggers with places in the W. and A. R. R., 
though they were not fortunate enough to be passenger con- 
ductors. Those lucrative jobs in the days when many cash 
fares were paid on the train were mostly held, he said, by 
sons of members of the legislature. 1 In 1870, in the state 
senate, when a resolution was introduced that the superin- 
tendent of the state road should dismiss from employment 
all members of the legislature, Hungerford responded 
with a retaliatory proposal to dismiss all relatives of mem- 
bers. 2 Not only as an instrument of patronage did the road 
serve as a useful political adjunct. At election times it 
was a great convenience to the radicals as a means of carry- 
ing voters to strengthen points of weakness. Before the De- 
cember election in 1870 a carload of negroes were brought 
from Chattanooga to vote in Atlanta. They held tickets 
instructing them to vote in Atlanta, which were recognized 
as passes by the conductor, according toi instructions from 
headquarters. 3 At the same time one hundred negro labor- 
ers, employed on the Atlanta and Richmond Air Line, going 
back to Virginia for Christmas under contract with the 
company, received specially favorable transportation rates 
as a return compliment for their pause in Atlanta over elec- 
tion day. When A. L. Harris was candidate for alderman 

1 Senate Journal, 1870, vol. i, p. 890. 
8 Ibid., pp. 13 1-2. 

s Committee to investigate the W. and A. R. R., 1872, p. 61. 



24 1 ] STATE ECONOMY OF BULLOCK REGIME 241 

in Atlanta, again a lot of negroes were brought in to vote. 
In 1870, according to the statement of a conductor on the 
road, about half of all the passengers traveled on free 
passes. 1 

With suspicions of mismanagement continuously in the 
air, several committees of the legislature, one after the other, 
investigated the management of the road. In February, 
1869, a joint committee to examine the affairs of the road 
reported that wasteful management was due to an old evil — 
employing it for political purposes. At this time there was 
much talk of the state selling the property to remove a 
source of political corruption. 2 In 1870, when the Repub- 
licans had full control of both houses, a second investi- 
gating committee presented a whitewashing report. 3 The 
purpose of the investigation, as it worked out, was to show 
that the administration of Blodgett, covering the months of 
January to April, 1870, up to the time of the investigation, 
was no worse than the preceding administration. The com- 
mittee did not ferret out any of the corruption then being 
talked about, but was content to report that it was gratified 
that no charges of corruption or mismanagement were sus- 
tained. The most serious findings of the report were that 
unduly large amounts were paid for lawyers' fees, not so 
large in 1870, however, as earlier; and that at one time 
there were too many hands employed in the car factory of 
the road, an abuse remedied as soon as it was called to the 
attention of Mr. Blodgett. The committee regretted that 
no money was being paid monthly into the state treasury, 
but felt satisfied that the earnings were being applied to 

1 Committee to investigate the W. and A. R. R., pp. 61, 66-7. 

2 Senate Journal, 1869, pp. 468 et seq. 

8 Senate Journal, 1870, vol. i, pp. 920-930; testimony, pp. 819-920. 
Members of the 1870 committee were — Senate : W. Brock, J. M. Colman ; 
House : A. H. Lee, R. M. Parks, E. Tweedy, J. A. Maxwell. 



242 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [242 

permanent improvement. The books show that the road 
paid to a firm in Atlanta a bill of $1,650 for liquors, cigars, 
etc., for the entertainment of the 1870 investigating com- 
mittee. 1 Perhaps this offers some explanation for the rose- 
ate hue in which affairs of the road appeared to the inves- 
tigators. Furthermore, the chairman of the 1870 committee 
was found later to be involved in fraudulent damage cases 
against the W. and A. R. R., to which he lent his influence 
in return for a share of the proceeds. 2 

The grossest corruption in the management of the road 
took place in the latter part of 1870 under Blodgett as 
superintendent. When it was apparent that the state was 
going to lease its property, officials and employees tried to 
get all they could out of the road into their pockets. Frauds 
of all kinds, mostly in purchases and in claims and dam- 
age cases, were brought to light by the investigating com- 
mittee, appointed by the Democratic legislature in Decem- 
ber, 1 87 1, after Bullock's flight. 3 Though this committee 
was strongly partisan, the evidence it brought out of 
wanton fraud was incontrovertible. The minority member 
of the committee could not deny the evidence of fraud, 
though he proved that Democrats, as well as Republicans, 
enjoyed the spoils of corruption. Testimony before the 
committee supported strong suspicion, if not absolute proof, 
that money from the state road helped pay the expenses of 
Governor Bullock and his friends in Washington in carry- 
ing out their campaign for prolonging Republican control 
in Georgia. The worst graft was found in the department 
of the purchasing agent, who was the son of the superin- 

1 Joint Committee to investigate the W. and A. R. R., 1872, p. 187. 

2 Ibid., p. 142 et seq.; also, Milledgeville Federal Union, July 12, 1871. 

3 The members of the joint committee to investigate the management 
of the W. and A. R. R., 1872, were— Senate : Milton A. Candler, W. L. 
Clark ; House : Claiborne Sneed, R. W. Phillips, W. L. Goldsmith. 



243] STATE ECONOMY OF BULLOCK REGIME 24% 

tendent. False accounts were made for goods never pur- 
chased, double prices were charged, the surplus divided 
between the firms making the sales and the agent for the 
road. One of the agents of the purchasing department, in 
collusion with an Atlanta merchant, acting under the name 
of a fictitious firm of New York, received several thou- 
sand dollars on fraudulent bills. 1 Business men of good 
standing in Atlanta and elsewhere were involved in these 
schemes of graft, not hesitating to secure patronage on the 
terms offered by employees of the road — fraudulent charges 
and a share of the rake-off, or expensive gifts to purchasing 
agents. Christmas presents were supplied liberally. A shot- 
gun and a rifle, a silver tea-set, knives and forks were fur- 
nished to an agent, paid for by the road under charges for 
" assorted iron " and " block tin ". 2 There were frauds 
in pay rolls, frauds in damage and claim cases, in excessive 
lawyers' fees, and notorious graft in connection with the 
purchase of cross-ties and wood for fuel. As evidence of 
the harmonious business interests of H. I. Kimball and Gov- 
ernor Bullock, it appeared that the Cartersville and Van 
Wert R. R., one of the state-aid railroads in which Kim- 
ball was interested, was furnished with cross-ties and ma- 
chinery, with several cars and one engine from the West- 
ern and Atlantic and with transportation of hands, without 
payment for such supplies and service. 3 Another of Kim- 
ball's enterprises, the so-called Tennessee Car Co., like- 
wise defrauded the state road through contracts for cars, 
paid for to the amount of more than $30,000, but never 
delivered. 4 

1 Testimony taken by the W. and A. Committee, 1872, p. 23. 

2 Ibid., pp. 16, 19, 34 42, 68. 3 Ibid., pp. 74-5. 

4 Ibid., p. in et seq. Foster Blodgett and Varney Gaskill, indicted on 
charges of fraud in connection with the Western and Atlantic R. R., 
were pardoned by Gov. Conley. 



244 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



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245] STATE ECONOMY OF BULLOCK REGIME 245 

The mismanagement of this valuable property continued 
on an increasing scale during the reconstruction period, until 
in 1870 the state road seemed nothing more than a public 
grab-bag into which each one sufficiently favored politi- 
cally might plunge a hand. Since the books of the road 
were so badly kept and no report was rendered, it is impos- 
sible to compute the amount of indebtedness which the polit- 
ical misuse of the Western and Atlantic by Bullock and 
Blodgett piled up for the state, between April and Decem- 
ber, 1870. 

In this condition of affairs strong public sentiment was 
aroused in favor of disposing of the state road either by 
sale or lease. A bill to lease it, introduced in the legislature 
by Dunlap Scott, one of the Democratic leaders, became law. 
Under the terms of the act, the governor was authorized to 
lease the property to a company, not to a connecting rail- 
road, for a rental not less than $25,000 per month. To 
guard against the danger of the road falling into the hands 
of outside speculators, the law required that a majority of 
the lessees should be bona-fide citizens and residents of 
Georgia of at least five years standing, and that lessees 
should give bond for at least $8,000,000, of which $5,000,- 
000 must be in Georgia, and should be worth in their own 
property, above all indebtedness, at least $500,000. 1 

The lease bill was primarily a Democratic measure, 
though it secured enough votes from the other side to carry 
it by a substantial majority, in the House, 90-31, and in the 
Senate, 25~7. 2 Well might the question be asked — How 
did it happen that the Republicans in the legislature, who 
partook so freely of the fruits of the state road, were will- 
ing to assent to such a self-denying ordinance as to yield 



1 Approved, October 24, 1870. Acts of Assembly, 1870, pp. 423-7. 

2 House Journal, 1870, pp. 1024-5 ; Senate Journal, 1870, vol. iii, p. 570. 



246 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



the common source of profit to private lessees? On the 
face of it there must have been corruption somewhere to 
secure the passage of this law. 1 With such a legislature and 
state administration as that of 1870 the mere purpose of the 
public good was not enough to* account for legislative action. 
In October, 1870, no bill could have passed without the as- 
sent of Governor Bullock and his friends, who controlled 
both houses of the legislature. Then why was Governor 
Bullock willing to let the state road go out of his hands to 
a private corporation? The possible answer may be two- 
fold. In the first place, it was evident, from the trend of 
politics in Georgia in the fall of 1870, that the Republicans 
could not hold on much longer, that the next election would 
remove Bullock's control in the legislature unless some pro- 
longation legislation from Washington could be obtained, 
of which there was little hope at that moment; and sec- 
ondly, a lease would not be a loss to the governor provided 
that it went to the " right " persons. About the time that 
the lease act was passed it became known that ex-Governor 
Brown was organizing a company to bid for the lease. As- 
sociated with him was H. I. Kimball. Perhaps in Kimball 
the " right " person was found. 

The Democrats themselves were loath to leave the leas- 
ing of the road to the governor, but as Mr. Dunlap Scott 
explained, they could not hope to get enough votes from the 
Republicans to pass the bill if the governor were ignored. 3 
At the time that the lease bill was before the Senate numer- 
ous attempts were made to amend the bill so as to provide 
against trickery in granting the lease. A resolution was in- 

1 A matter of some $50,000, said to have been expended by Kimball 
in connection with securing the lease, was never satisfactorily explained. 
See testimony of A. J. White, one of the lessees, Joint Committee on 
Lease of the W. and A. R. R., 1872, p. 34 et seq. 

2 Ibid., p. 119. 



247] STATE ECONOMY OF BULLOCK REGIME 247 

troduced to require the governor to place all bids and all 
information before the next session of the legislature; and 
another, to require the governor to accept the highest bid 
made by a company formed according to the terms of the 
law. But these amendments, as were all others, were tabled 
or defeated when put to vote. 1 

The most interesting and intricate part of the history of 
the state road lease arose in connection with the formation 
of the company of lessees and the controversy concerning 
the fairness in the award of the lease. On October 26, 
1870, the governor advertised that bids would be received 
until December 25th, and on December 27th it became 
known that the company of which ex-Governor Brown was 
head had been awarded the lease at $25,000 per month 
rental. Before the lease act passed, the group in which 
Governor Brown was interested was the only one known to 
be possible bidders for the lease. When it was ascertained 
that John P. King, President of the Georgia R. R., was act- 
ing with Brown's company, the heads of the railroads ra- 
diating from Macon — the Central, the Macon and Western 
and the Southwestern — feared that the Western and At- 
lantic would be managed by such a company for the inter- 
ests of the Georgia R. R. to the injury of other roads in 
the state. Whereupon, at a meeting of several represen- 
tatives of the Macon roads it was determined that they 
should try to secure a half interest in Brown's company. 
With this purpose in view, a committee representing these 
roads sought an interview with Brown in Atlanta. When 
they saw it would be impossible for them to be admitted 
into the close corporation forming in Atlanta, they deter- 
mined to form a company of their own to compete for the 
lease. From what they learned of the situation in Atlanta, 



1 Senate Journal, 1870, vol. iii, pp. 569, 571. 



248 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [248 



the Macon gentlemen concluded that business interests 
alone would not be sufficient to enable them to compete with 
the Atlanta company. 1 Hence they, too, played politics. 
Their move at this point, one of remarkable shrewdness, fin- 
ally brought them victory, and a half interest in the leasing 
corporation. Influence in Atlanta being already engaged, 
the Macon company looked higher up, to the U. S. Senate 
and to the President's friends, in fact, and secured for their 
corporation Simon B. Cameron, John S. Delano, son of 
the Secretary of the Interior, and Thomas A. Scott, of the 
Pennsylvania R. R. This combination did the work. On 
the last day for the submission of bids, after hours of ne- 
gotiation between the two parties, compromise and combi- 
nation were achieved. So the leasing corporation, as finally 
constituted, represented two somewhat hostile parties, the 
Brown party and the Macon, or Hill party. The Macon 
party was made up of the railroad representatives already 
mentioned, the Washington group, and in addition B. H. 
Hill,W.C. Morrill, 2 a Republican politician and office-holder, 
and John T. Grant, a capitalist and railroad contractor. In 
Brown's party the most prominent were Brown himself, 
H. I. Kimball and Kimball's father-in-law, Geo. Cook, and 
H. B. Plant, a friend of Bullock, with representatives of the 
Georgia R. R. and of the Nashville and Chattanooga R. R. 
and others. Difficulty in the negotiations between the two 

1 Testimony of W. S. Holt before the W. and A. Lease Committee, 
1872, p. 7 et seq. W. M. Wadley, President of the Central R. R., re- 
fused to have anything to do with the lease. 

The account of the formation of the lease company is based on 
testimony given before this committee, especially from the evidence 
presented by W. B. Johnston, A. J. White, J. E. Brown, B. H. Hill, 
Wm. S. Holt. Members of the committee to investigate the W. and 
A. lease— Senate : W. M. Reese, A. D. Nunnally ; House : G. F. Pierce, 
Geo. M. Netherland, C. B. Hudson. 

* Morrill, a Republican office-holder, was taken in because he secured 
the introduction of the Washington group. Lease Committee, p. 137. 



249 ] STATE ECONOMY OF BULLOCK REGIME 249 

camps arose concerning the controlling interest in the board 
of directors. The final agreement called for twenty-three 
directors, each group to have eleven, with a twenty-third 
director in the person of W. B. Dinsmore, President of the 
Southern Express Company. Though it was never actually 
proved, it was currently believed that Director No. 23 was 
simply a cloak for Governor Bullock. Dinsmore himself 
was not present at the time of the negotiations and his name 
was not mentioned until the very end. 

The twenty-three lessees, with the shares held at the time 
of the award of the lease and the personal wealth of each, 
were as follows : 1 

Jos. E. Brown, one and one-half shares, Atlanta, worth 
$100,000. 

H. I. Kimball, one and one-half shares, Atlanta, worth 
$100,000. 

Geo- Cook, one share, New Haven, Conn., worth $100,000. 

H. B. Plant, one share, Augusta, worth $100,000, connected 
with the Southern Express Co. 

John P. King, one share, Augusta, worth $250,000, President 
of the Ga. R. R. and of the A. and W- P. R. R. 

Richd. Peters, one share, Atlanta, worth $100,000, Director 
of the Ga. R. R. 

A. H. Stephens, one-half share, Crawfordsville, worth 
$10,000. 

E. W. Cole, one share, Nashville, worth $40,000, representa- 
tive of the Nashville and Chattanooga R. R. 

Thos. Allen, one share, St- Louis, worth $500,000, represen- 
tative of the St. Louis and Iron Mt. R. R. 

Ezekiel Waitzfelder, one share, New York, worth $100,000. 

Benj. May, one share, Columbus, worth $100,000. 

W- B. Dinsmore, one share, New York, worth $500,000, 
President of the Southern Express Co. 



1 Journal of the House of Representatives, 1871, App. p. 24. 



250 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [250 

John S. Delano, one share, Mt. Vernon, O., worth $50,000. 

Simon B. Cameron, one and one-half shares, Harrisburg, 
Pa., worth $500,000, U. S- Senator. 

Wm. C. Morrill, one share, Macon, worth $8,000. 

Thos. A. Scott, one share, Philadelphia, worth $500,000. 
Pennsylvania R. R. 

Wm. T. Walters, one share, Baltimore, worth $500,000, 
Baltimore and Ohio R. R. 

A. J. White, one-half share, Macon, worth $50,000, Presi- 
dent of the Macon and Western R. R. 

Wm. B. Johnston, one share, Macon, worth $100,000, Direc- 
tor of the Central R. R. and of the Mac. and Wes. R- R. 

C. A. Nutting, one share, Macon, worth $100,000. 

Wm. S. Holt, one share, Macon, worth $80,000, President 
of the Southwestern R. R. 

B- H. Hill, one share, Athens, worth $100,000. 

John T. Grant, one share, Walton County, worth $100,000. 

It is a matter worthy of comment that the name of Alex. 
H. Stephens appears among the lessees. It seems that when 
it was known that ex-Governor Brown was forming a com- 
pany to bid for the lease, Stephens wrote to Brown, saying 
that he would like to join such a company, willing to pledge 
himself to the amount of $10,000, his whole property above 
liability. Stephens thought the lease a good thing for the 
state, and regarded Governor Brown as an efficient manager 
of the railroad, as he had proved himself while governor. 
While Stephens and Brown differed politically, Mr. 
Stephens said that he never believed Brown to be a "rogue", 
but had confidence in his business honesty. The lease com- 
pany was by no means loath to accept Stephens as one of 
their number in spite of his limited financial backing. No 
one stood higher in the minds of the people of Georgia for 
public-mindedness and scrupulous integrity than Alex. H. 
Stephens, who would lend moral support to any company 
of which he was a member. A few days after the lease 



251] STATE ECONOMY OF BULLOCK REGIME 251 

was awarded to the Brown Company, Mr. Stephens, hearing 
more of the circumstances connected with the lease, wrote 
to Brown, withdrawing from the company of lessees. 1 

Meanwhile, a rival company, made up mostly of Atlanta 
merchants and bankers, made a bid for the lease, offering 
$35,000 per month rental, whereas the successful bidders 
offered but $25,000. This second group, the Seago-Blod- 
gett Company, offered among its securities the Central R. 
R. and other railroad properties, which the officials of these 
roads declared were offered without their sanction. On 
the ground of unsatisfactory security, their bid was re- 
jected by the governor in favor of the first company. Seago 
and his associates, in seeking political influence, added Mr. 
Blodgett to their number. 2 But Mr. Blodgett was of no 
weight at all when Kimball, Delano, Scott and Cameron 
were in the opposite balance. Just a few days before the 
lease was awarded, the state election had been held, re- 
sulting in defeat for Bullock's party. With some prolon- 
gation scheme still hoped for and the question of the ad- 
mission of Georgia's senators unsettled, it would seem wise 
to Bullock to gain favor at court in every possible way. 
While Cameron, Scott and Delano were in Atlanta, much 
pressure was put upon them to use their influence in Wash- 
ington to have the election in the fifth Georgia district set 
aside, so as to bring about some kind of reorganization. 3 

In 1872 all the circumstances attendant upon the leasing 
of the state road underwent careful review before an in- 
vestigating committee of the legislature. The evidence be- 
fore the committee revealed unmistakable crookedness in 
getting the lease bill through the legislature and in the 

1 Correspondence between Stephens and Brown in Atlanta Constitu- 
tion and Augusta Constitutionalist, January, 1871. 
s W. and A. Lease Committee, 1&72, p. 216 et seq. 
* Ibid., p. 154. 



252 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [252 

formation of the Atlanta group of the lease company. 
Through all the conflicting and intricate mass of testimony 
it seems fairly conclusive that, whether or not Bullock 
held a share in the lease company, as was commonly be- 
lieved, he and H. I. Kimball expected to control the com- 
pany. Important light on the situation came from A. L. 
Harris, supervisor of the Western and Atlantic under Bul- 
lock. 1 He said that when he remonstrated with Bullock 
that it would be impolitic to allow the road to go out of 
his hands, the governor assured him that he and his friends 
would control it. Harris was first promised a share in the 
lease, and later, the position of superintendent. Up to 
January 10, 1871, when the lessees elected the officers of 
the company, both Bullock and Kimball assured Harris that 
he would be superintendent. Afterwards, according to 
Harris's account, Bullock said that the company had gone 
back on him — " had acted the hog ". Their scheme, so 
Harris testified, was originally to "sweat" Governor Brown 
out of the presidency and to put Kimball in his place. But 
the plans of Bullock and Kimball, if such they were, went 
awry because of two unforeseen difficulties, the astuteness 
of Brown, accustomed to lead and to use others rather 
than to be used, and the strength of the Macon group sup- 
ported by Washington influence. Events that followed sub- 
stantiate Harris's statement of the case. When Kimball 
failed to secure control he sold his interest, part of which 
was attached for debt, as did also his father-in-law, Geo. 
Cook. Instead of Kimball " sweating out " Brown, that 
uncomfortable process seems to have been applied to Mr. 
Kimball himself. 

The majority report of the joint committee to investi- 
gate the fairness of the Western and Atlantic lease, signed 



1 Joint Committee to investigate the official conduct of Rufus B. 
Bullock, 1&72, pp. 68-70. 



STATE ECONOMY OF BULLOCK REGIME 



253 



by four of the five members of the committee, declared that 
Governor Bullock had acted unfairly in creating suspicion, 
if not conviction, of his intention to grant the lease to cer- 
tain bidders in any case; that the combination among bid- 
ders was unfair, thwarting competition; that the inference 
was clear that the lease was unfairly procured; and that 
H. I. Kimball had " manipulated " Governor Bullock in 
procuring the lease. The committee concluded : 

It is certainly established that Kimball had an absolute control 
over Governor Bullock, in all matters of legislation and of 
official patronage, from which money was to be made for him- 
self, his relatives and friends. It is admitted that Kimball 
secured for himself and his father-in-law, George Cook, two 
and one-half shares in the lease company. It is certain that 
no company which did not allow H. I. Kimball and his rela- 
tives an undue interest in it could have secured the lease. The 
question arises, how did H. I. Kimball obtain such power 
over Governor Bullock? This question is well answered by 
E. L. Jones, cashier of the Georgia National Bank. This 
witness says, " that Governor Bullock was constantly supplied 
with money by H. I. Kimball ; that they were mutually inter- 
ested in all matters of business." 

Hence, the decision of the majority was: " The present 
lease of the Western and Atlantic R. R., obtained from 
Rufus B. Bullock, Governor of the State of Georgia, on 
the 27th day of December, 1870, was unfairly obtained." 1 
The minority member of the committee, A. D. Nunnally, 
of the Senate, reported no unfairness in the award of the 
lease, since the other competitors did not fully comply with 
the terms of the lease act. On the main question at issue, 
whether or not the legislature should sustain the lease as 
granted by Governor Bullock, to a company offering but 
$25,000 per month, when another bid for $35,000 was 



1 Journal of the House, 1871, App. 



254 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [254 

made, the Democratic legislature rejected the recommenda- 
tion of the majority and voted to uphold the lease. 1 

There was widespread feeling in Georgia that the lease 
had been obtained unfairly. The Atlanta Constitution in 
January had bitter editorials concerning the transaction, 
pouring its venom especially upon Jos. E. Brown and Benj. 
H. Hill The position of Mr. Hill was particularly open to 
attack. In 1867 and 1868 he was one of the most vigor- 
ous defenders of Georgia against reconstruction, and his 
" Notes on the Situation " in 1867, written primarily to 
oppose Governor Brown and the submissionists, was taken 
as the creed of those who> would stand firm for resistance 
or masterly inactivity to the bitter end. In December, 1870, 
just when the lease company was in process of formation, 
a public letter from Mr. Hill came like a clap of thunder 
upon his friends in the state. 2 He, too, counseled submis- 
sion and acceptance of reconstruction as the best policy. 
As the Atlanta Constitution said : "Joe Brown and Ben Hill, 
cheek by jowl, politically, is a merry piece of humor ". 3 
An apt quotation was cited by those who relied upon a 
sense of humor to relieve their chagrin : "Joseph is not, and 
now they take my son Benjamin ". 4 

In general, however, the mismanagement of the road had 
aroused such disgust that most people in Georgia were glad 
to have it removed from the immediate sphere of politics, 
and to know that $25,000 would pour into the state treas- 
ury every month instead of many times that amount flow- 
ing out. 

1 Journal of the Senate, 1872, pp. 296-7; Journal of the House, 1872, 
p. 369. 

2 Letter of December 8, 1870 in Augusta Constitutionalist, December 
14, 1870. 

3 January 11, 1871. 

4 A. R. Wright, testimony before the Ku Klux Committee of Congress, 
Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, p. 144. 



CHAPTER X 



Reorganized Reconstruction and the Restoration of 

Home Rule 

Georgia was one of the six states included in the Omni- 
bus bill of Congress of June 25, 1868, to be admitted to 
representation when the Fourteenth Amendment should be 
ratified by the legislature. A further condition was made 
in the case of Georgia, requiring the annulment of the relief 
clause of her state constitution, the clause on which the 
Radicals had relied to carry the state for ratification. 1 On 
July 2 1st the legislature ratified the Fourteenth Amend- 
ment, 2 and annulled the relief clause of the constitution, lim- 
iting jurisdiction over debts incurred before June 1, 1865. 3 
During the second session of the 40th Congress, Georgia's 
seven representatives were admitted to the House. Joshua 
Hill and H. V. M. Miller, the senators chosen in July, did 
not arrive in Washington until after the end of the session, 
and so the question of their admission did not arise until 
the beginning of the third session on December 7th, when 
Joshua Hill presented his credentials. 

But between June and December, important things hap- 
pened in Georgia. As we have seen, anti-Bullock men, 
controlling both houses of the legislature, refused Bullock's 
demand to declare members ineligible. The legislature re- 
jected Bullock's favorites for the U. S. Senate, and ex- 

1 U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. xv, 40 €., 2 S., Public Laws, pp. 73-4. 
See supra, p. 195. 

2 Senate Journal, 1868, p. 46; House Journal, 1868, pp. 49-51. 

3 Senate Journal, 1868, p. 46 ; House Journal, 1868, p. 52. 

255] 255 



256 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [256 

pelled negro members from both houses. But most ser- 
ious of all, Democratic electors were chosen in the presi- 
dential election in November. These circumstances, to- 
gether with Ku Klux outrages, real and fictitious, were 
made much of by Governor Bullock in convincing his 
friends in Washington that the state which he had adminis- 
tered for six months as governor was not a state, but still 
a military district, " with no adequate protection for life 
and property ". In his communications to Congress and to 
the General Assembly he called himself Provisional Gover- 
nor, the title used before the removal of General Meade's 
command in July, 1868. 1 

In the House of Representatives the case of Georgia was 
referred to the Committee on Reconstruction, which took 
testimony during January, 1869, concerning the condition 
of affairs in the state. 2 Governor Bullock, the most impor- 
tant witness demanding further action by Congress, declared 
that the Reconstruction Acts had not been fulfilled in Geor- 
gia ; that the legislature was not duly constituted, since mem- 
bers had not taken the test oath required by the Reconstruc- 
tion Acts, but only the oath of the state constitution. Thus ; 
he claimed, about forty members of the House and fifteen or 
eighteen in the Senate held seats unconstitutionally. Fur- 
ther, negro members had been expelled illegally from both 
houses. The plan of action which he recommended was that 
the commanding general should reassemble the legislature as 
elected in April, 1868, require the test oath of all members, 
and thus reinstate colored members and eliminate those in- 
eligible under the Reconstruction Acts. 3 

1 Gov. Bullock's Address to Congress, Dec. 7, 1868. House Journal, 
Georgia Assembly, 1869, pp. 5-7. 

2 Congressional Globe, 40 C., 3 S., p. 10; House Mis. Doc., 40 G, 
3 S., no. 52, " Condition of Affairs in Georgia." 

3 Ibid., pp. 2-5. 



257 ] REORGANIZED RECONSTRUCTION 257 

Other witnesses appeared before the committee to prove 
that conditions in Georgia demanded Congressional inter- 
ference. Two of the expelled members of the legislature, 
Jas. M. Sims, a Baptist preacher of Savannah, and H. M. 
Turner, a missionary of the African M. E. Church in 
Macon, told of the hardships suffered by negroes in being 
denied the right to vote, in being discharged from work for 
their political affiliations, and of severe outrages perpetrated 
upon them. 1 A. T. Akerman, a prominent Republican mem- 
ber of the Convention of 1868 and later Attorney-General 
in Grant's cabinet, was not quite so satisfactory a witness 
for the reorganization party as Bullock might have wished. 
He testified that there was much lawlessness about the time 
of the presidential election, and in some places negroes were 
kept from voting by white men, who closed in around the 
polls and crowded them out; but after the election in No- 
vember conditions materially improved, disorder subsided, 
people were becoming reconciled to negro suffrage, and 
many who considered the reconstruction government un- 
settled until the presidential election afterward regarded it 
as permanent. One of the best indications of increasing 
confidence in the established order, he thought, was the de- 
cided rise in real estate values. 2 Another witness, I. Seeley, 
brought quotations from the report of General Lewis of the 
Freedmen's Bureau in Georgia to prove lawlessness and 
harsh treatment of the blacks. Between January and No- 
vember, 1868, 260 cases of outrages against freedmen were 
reported, averaging 17 a month under military rule and 46 
a month after the restoration of civil authority 8 — rather a 
sorry commentary, after all, on the efficiency of the state 
administration, though Bullock did not see it in that light. 



1 Congressional Globe, 40 C, 3 S., pp. 7-9, 11. 

1 Ibid., pp. 12-22. 3 Ibid., p. 41. 



258 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [258 

To combat the testimony given by Bullock's witnesses, 
Nelson Tift, of Albany, Ga., a Democratic congressman 
admitted at the previous session, introduced evidence ob- 
tained from one hundred or more civil officers, judges, 
mayors of cities, ordinaries, assessors of revenue and others. 
His questionnaire touched on the following points : impar- 
tiality in the enforcement of laws, organized or unorganized 
resistance to law, faithfulness of officers, attitude of whites 
toward blacks, toward Northerners and Republicans in gen- 
eral, desire of the people for peace and restoration, and jus- 
tification for the re-establishment of military government. 
On all these points there was general agreement in the letters 
introduced by Mr. Tift as to favorable conditions in 
Georgia, not warranting further interference by Congress. 

Ex-Governor Brown, though still a Republican, at this 
point in reconstruction departed from Bullock and the 
strong reconstruction party. In his letter in reply to Mr. 
Tift's questions, he stated that in some parts of the state 
lawlessness went unpunished, and at election time excite- 
ment ran high, negroes and white Republicans generally 
being the sufferers. But after the November election a 
marked change took place, excitement cooled and better 
order prevailed. The native white Republicans of Georgia, 
esitmated at about 25,000, were strongly opposed to any 
further reconstruction by Congress. Other letters expressed 
the opinion that Brown only hinted at, that the cry for 
more reconstruction was set up only from a fraction and a 
faction of the Republicans for personal interest. Judge 
Hiram Warner of the Georgia Supreme Court wrote that 
the main object of Bullock in urging General Meade to 
purge the legislature was to secure the election of his favor- 
ites to the U. S. Senate, and that the Democratic victory of 
1868 showed ill feeling not to Grant but to the " Atlanta 
Ring ". The same testimony was given by one of the reve- 



2 $g] REORGANIZED RECONSTRUCTION 2 $g 

nue assessors, Mr. Bowles, who wrote : " I cannot see any 
good reason why the government of Georgia should be de- 
stroyed, unless Congress does it to gratify a few disap- 
pointed politicians, and fulfil the prophecies of the most 
bitter and persistent enemies of reconstruction ". 1 

During the third session of the Fortieth Congress no 
action was taken by either house to straighten out the 
Georgia tangle. The Senate, in refusing to admit Joshua 
Hill, pronounced against the restoration of Georgia. When 
it came to counting the electoral vote in February, 1869, the 
two houses took a somewhat equivocal stand, by announcing 
the result with and without Georgia's vote. This showed 
plainly that Congress was not ready to decide definitely 
what was to be done with the troublesome state which had 
managed to secure moderate instead of radical control in its 
assembly, dared to expel negroes from its legislature, and 
was so uncircumspect as to elect a Democratic electoral 
ticket. In the Senate, both Sumner and Edmunds intro- 
duced bills looking to the further reconstruction of Georgia; 
and in the House, the matter was referred to the Com- 
mittee on Reconstruction, of which B. F. Butler had become 
chairman after the death of Thaddeus Stevens. 2 

In March, 1869, when the Forty-first Congress assembled, 
the House was able to rid itself of the Georgia members by 
the happy accident of a technical flaw in their credentials, 
which failed to state to which Congress they were accred- 
ited. 3 Not until the second session, however, did Congress 
agree upon its treatment of Georgia. New ammunition 
came to the hands of the party desiring further reconstruc- 
tion in the report of General Terry, who was assigned to 

1 Congressional Globe, 40 C, 3 S., pp. 141-55. 

8 Ibid., 40 C, 3 S., pp. 10, 27, 144. 

8 Ibid., 41 C, 1 S., pp. 16-18; 41 C, 2 S., pp. 853-4. 



2 6o RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [260 

duty in Georgia, and new purpose impelled them in their 
need for votes for the Fifteenth Amendment. 1 Hence the 
Georgia Bill was passed, December 22, 1869, remanding the 
state to military jurisdiction under the Acts of 1867, and 
requiring the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment as a 
further condition of admission. 2 For the third time mili- 
tary government was enforced — in 1865, from April to 
June; in 1867, when the civil reconstitution of 1865-6 was 
repudiated; and again in 1869 when the status of 1867 was 
resumed. 

In the meantime, in Georgia during the year 1869 sev- 
eral things happened which played into the hands of those 
who were looking for excuses for Congressional interfer- 
ence. First of all, the legislature rejected the Fifteenth 
Amendment. On March 9th, " Provisional Governor " 
Bullock submitted the amendment, together with a message 
construing the amendment to include all political privileges, 
the right to hold office as well as to vote. 3 On March nth, 
by a vote of 68-60, the lower house passed a resolution to 
ratify the amendment, with a proviso rejecting the con- 
struction placed upon it by the governor; and on March 
1 6th, the motion to ratify unconditionally was passed, 64- 
53. 4 In the Senate, however, the amendment was finally 
rejected, 13- 16. 5 The defeat of the amendment was by no 
means chargeable to the Conservatives, who were divided 
on the question. Some still held out against agreeing in 
any way whatsoever with the work of Congress, while 

1 Report of General Terry, October 31, 1869, in Report of Secretary 
of War, 1869-70, vol. i, pp. 83-95. 

2 U. S. Statutes at Large, 41 C, 2 S., vol. xvi, Public Laws, pp. 59-6o. 
8 House lournal, 1869, pp. 575-80. 

4 Ibid., pp. 601-2, 665-6. 

5 Senate Journal, 1869, p. 806. 



2 6i] REORGANIZED RECONSTRUCTION 2 6l 



others considered it good policy to accept the amendment, 
which simply fastened on the rest of the country what 
Georgia could not shake off. Evidence seems to uphold 
the charge made at the time that the defeat of the amend- 
ment was a political trick of the Bullock men. Be it re- 
membered that in 1869 Bullock was trying in every possible 
way to secure the re-establishment of military government 
in order to overthrow the legislature which he could not 
control. If the amendment were adopted, Congress would 
be likely to maintain the status quo in Georgia. Hence it 
was to the interest of the " Provisional Governor " and his 
friends to reject the amendment. In the Senate the oppos- 
ing influence of Bullock was patent. After the resolution 
for ratification was first agreed to by a vote of 21-16, on re- 
consideration a motion for indefinite postponement pre- 
vailed by the deciding vote of the chair, Benj. Conley, a 
strong Bullock ally. On this vote and on the final vote on 
March 18th, it was noticeable that the firmest friends and 
most diligent supporters of the governor failed to vote. 
Out of 44 members of the Senate, only 29 voted on the 
final resolution, 13 in favor. 1 It is noteworthy, likewise, 
that the House, where Conservatives were stronger, ratified 
the amendment, while the Senate rejected it. A Democratic 
newspaper contributed the following: 2 

1 Vote on the Fifteenth Amendment — House Journal, 1869, pp. 601-2, 
610, 618, 665-6; Senate Journal, pp. 688, 794, 806. Avery, History of 
the State of Georgia, p. 411, explains the vote as follows: House — first 
vote on amendment, 24 Republicans in favor, 4 opposed, 24 dodged. 
After the resolution to ratify was carried, on a vote to reconsider, one 
of the dodgers voted for reconsideration. Senate — on the vote for 
indefinite postponement, 13 Republicans in favor, 6 opposed. On final 
vote, 8 Republicans for amendment, 8 opposed, 8 dodged. 

2 Macon Telegraph, March 23, 1869. 



.262 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[262 



Who killed the Fifteenth Amendment? 

I, says Mr. President Conley 

I, and I only 

I, in the Senate 

Killed it in a minute 

With my little vote 

I gave it a death stroke; 

I killed the Fifteenth Amendment. 

The question of negro eligibility to office still hung fire 
in 1869. Some of the Conservatives, who gleefully voted 
to expel the negro members from the legislature, became 
uneasy when they saw the effect of their action on public 
opinion in the North, and were willing to leave the matter 
to the state supreme court for decision. Such was the ad- 
vice of Congressman Nelson Tift after a conversation with 
General Grant. 1 A resolution to that effect passed both 
houses of the legislature in February, only to be vetoed by 
the governor. 2 

Acting under the bill for the reorganization of Georgia, 
Bullock issued a call for the meeting of the legislature on 
January 10, 1870, to all members declared elected in 1868, 
including, of course, the negroes who 1 had been expelled. 
On this occasion the question of eligibility of members was 
not entrusted to the two houses, but was taken in hand by 
Governor Bullock and General Terry, in command of the 
Department of Georgia under the Reorganization Act. Or- 
ganization was directed by appointees of the governor, J. 
G. W. Mills in the Senate and A. L. Harris in the House. 
The test of eligibility applied was the oath of the Recon- 
struction Acts, not the Fourteenth Amendment. In order 

1 Macon Telegraph, January 19, 1869. Telegram from Tift to Gen. J. 
B. Gordon, E. G. Cabaniss, and J. I. Whitaker. 

2 Senate Journal, 1869, p. 263 ; House Journal, pp. 228 et seq. 



263] REORGANIZED RECONSTRUCTION 263 

to establish official interpretation of the terms of the oath, 
" civil office " and " aid and comfort to enemies Bullock 
called for an opinion from the attorney-general of the 
state, H. P. Farrow. Farrow's interpretation was the 
broadest possible, including notaries public, commissioners, 
state librarians, among " civil officers " in the meaning of 
the law. 1 This wide construction of the term, by which 
several members displeasing to Bullock could be excluded, 
was followed by the attorney-general and incidentally by 
the Republican Executive Committee as well, in working up 
evidence against suspected ineligibles. 2 On the other hand, 
Chief Justice Brown, at this period parting from his former- 
radical allies, being called upon by a group of Conserva- 
tives from the legislature to construe the meaning of eli- 
gibility, gave an opinion directly contrary to that of Far- 



row. 3 



By General Terry's command, a military board, consisting 
of General T. H. Ruger, General T. J. Haines, and Major 
Henry Goodf ellow, was ordered to investigate the eligibility 
of certain members — W. T. Winn, J. J. Collier, A. W. Hol- 
combe, W. J. Anderson, B. B. Hinton, C. J. Wellborn, and 
others. 4 In its rulings the military board did not go as far 
as Bullock's friends wished, for it considered some offices, 
such as marshal of a town, notary public, and state librarian, 
not to be offices within the meaning of the law. Of those 
investigated under evidence presented by the attorney- 
general, four were declared by the military board to be in- 
eligible, W. T. Winn in the Senate, R. A. Donaldson, E. M. 

1 House Journal, 1870, pp. 10-16. 

2 Atlanta Constitution, January 9, 1870; Avery, op. cit, pp. 424-6. 
5 Atlanta Constitution, January 19, 1870. 

* General Orders, no. 3, House Exec. Doc., 41 C, 2 S., no. 288. 



264 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[264 



Taliaferro, and J. H. Nunn in the House. 1 In addition, 
sixteen other members, who filed petitions to be relieved 
from disability, were on the face of their own petitions 
declared by General Terry to be ineligible. 2 Two others 
failed to take the oath. 3 

In this instance the Republicans adopted the method 
which the Conservatives used to fill the seats of expelled 
negroes, seating the candidates having the next highest vote 
in the election of 1868. Thus, one Republican replaced a 
Conservative in the Senate, and twenty-one new Republi- 
cans took their places in the House. In addition, the ne- 
groes who were expelled in 1868 were restored to their 
seats. By this transformation, commonly known as Terry's 
Purge, strong Republican majorities were established in 
both houses, and now at last it would seem that the Bullock 
party could proceed without impediment. 4 

After the cases of eligibility were decided, permanent or- 
ganization was effected in the two houses. Conley was 
again elected President of the Senate. In the House the 
contest over the speakership revealed the strength of the 
two parties. R. L. McWhorter, Speaker during the first 
session, was the choice of the Bullock men, while Conser- 
vatives united with moderate and anti-Bullock Republicans 

1 Report of the Military Investigating Board, January 22 and 23, 
1870, House Exec. Doc., op. ext., pp. 166-8. 

2 Burtz, Brinson, Bennett, George, Goff, Hudson, D. Johnson, Kellogg, 
Meadows, Penland, Surrency, J. R. Smith, H. Williams, Drake, J. T. 
Ellis, Rouse. House Journal, 1870, pp. 30-4. 

8 Crawford and McCulloch. 

4 Woolley, Reconstruction of Georgia, p. 94, gives a table to show 
the political composition of the legislature after the reorganization in 
1870 — House, 87 Rep. Senate, 27 Rep. 

83 Consv. 17 Consv. 

This does not take account of the Independent Republicans, who voted 
variably. 



265] REORGANIZED RECONSTRUCTION 2 6$ 

on J. E. Bryant. Bryant and J. H. Caldwell, who were 
staunch supporters of Bullock in the legislature in 1868, 
were now leaders of the disaffected Republicans and fought 
vigorously against Bullock both in Washington and At- 
lanta. 1 The Bullock forces won, electing McWhorter with 
76 votes to Bryant's 52. 2 

The following letters, written by Robert Toombs to his 
close friend, Alex. H. Stephens, give an interesting side- 
light on the political tangle in Atlanta as it appeared in this 
period of reorganization : 3 

Washington, Geo., Jan. 24, 1870. 

... I went to Atlanta to see if I could be of any service in 
the present coup d'etat of Bullock and his conspirators. It 
is a hard job. He is perfectly reckless, fully supported by the 
military, stakes all upon success, and offers all the offices, places, 
money, and the plunder of the people for help to aid him to 
obtain the dictatorship of the state- It has not been without 
its effect upon some of the so-called Democrats. Many out- 
siders bite at the bait, and some representatives, but our true 
men have banded together with a good deal of firmness, hold 
the weak and timid and overawe and intimidate some of the 
villains on their own side. They have also good prospects of 
strong defection among the enemy if they will " stick ". 
Nearly all of the " ins " are against Bullock and his own, and 
[a] pretty good lot of those that could not get " in " when 
they wanted to. Bryant is the candidate of the Democrats 

1 See pamphlets presenting Bryant's case against Bullock — Reply to 
Article in the Washington Chronicle; Bryant before the Judiciary Com- 
mittee; Letter from Bryant to Sumner. Bryant maintained that Bul- 
lock's purpose in reorganizing the legislature was to elect Blodgett 
to the U. S. Senate, to cover up his financial operations, and to carry 
certain railroad schemes. 

2 Journal of the House, 1870, pp. 33-4. 

3 Annual Report of the American Historical Association, 1911, vol. 
ii, pp. 707, 708. 



266 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[266 



for speaker of the House, and I and Joe Brown are trying to 
elect him! Rather a strange conjunction, is it not? But you 
know my rule is to use the devil if I can do better to save the 
country. Upon the whole the prospect was pretty good when 
I left there. 

Washington, Geo., Feb. 8, 1870. 
. . . P. S. I forgot to tell you about my political adventures 
in Atlanta. I got into consultations with Brown, Bryant, 
Caldwell, et id omne genus. Politics does make us acquainted 
with strange bedfellows. Brown seems really in earnest in his 
endeavor to defeat Bullock and his schemes. I don't [know] 
whether or not he sees where his present course will land 
him, but I suppose he does. There were many curious de- 
velopments which I don't care to put on paper but will tell 
you all about when we meet. We thought we had the crowd 
pretty dead two or three times, but the spirit of evil at Wash- 
ington was too strong for us and poor Grant could not 
" stick 

In February the purged legislature promptly ratified the 
Fifteenth Amendment, and the Fourteenth as well, al- 
though the Fourteenth Amendment had already been pro- 
claimed law with Georgia as one of the ratifying states. 1 
Continuing on the basis that the legislature of 1868 was 
illegal, the reorganized body on February 16th proceeded 
to the election of U. S. Senators, Conservatives, with few 
exceptions, refused to vote. Now Bullock's friends had 
their own way and one, at least, of the main purposes for 
which reorganization was effected could be achieved. Ex- 
Governor Brown, who was the favorite of the Bullock 
party in 1868, now on the supreme bench, was out of the 
race, especially since his departure from the Radicals on 
the subject of further reconstruction. Foster Blodgett was 

1 Acts of the General Assembly, 1870, pp. 492-493. 



267] REORGANIZED RECONSTRUCTION 267 

elected for the term ending in 1877, H. P. Farrow for the 
1873 term, and R. H. Whiteley for the short term, 1871. 1 
Farrow and Whiteley were chosen for the terms of Joshua 
Hill and Dr. Miller, who had not been admitted to the 
Senate. By law the election for the 1877 term should not 
have been held until the session of the legislature in Janu- 
ary, 1 87 1, but the Radicals thought it wise to take all they 
could get while they had their innings. 

The form of the provisional and military government 
was upheld by the legislature, which transacted no general 
business after ratifying the amendment and electing sen- 
ators. It adjourned from February until April, awaiting 
the action of Congress. After a brief session of two weeks, 
it again adjourned, since Congress still had not dealt with 
Georgia, leaving government practically in the hands of 
General Terry and the provisional governor. The activity 
of General Terry in Georgia called forth resolutions of pro- 
test in Congress. The House of Representatives in Janu- 
ary, 1870, requested from the General of the Army infor- 
mation as to the authority of army officers acting as an 
eligibility committee of the legislature, and the Judiciary 
Committee of the Senate declared that the Act of Decem- 
ber 22d had been misconstrued. 2 

The second scheme of the ^constructionists, fathered by 
Governor Bullock and sponsored in Congress by B. F. 
Butler, was to prolong the power of the Radicals in Georgia 
by postponing the election of a new assembly, due by law 
in December, 1870. The wheels of the scandal mill con- 
tinued to grind, not slowly, like the mills of the gods, but 
with all speed, and members of Congress were plied with 
accounts of dreadful happenings in Georgia. While the 

1 House Journal, 1870, pp. 95-7. 

8 Congressional Globe, 41 C, 2 S., pp. 575, 1029, 1128, 1624; Senate 
Reports, 41 C, 2 S., no. 58. 



268 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



prolongation scheme was hanging fire in Congress, this 
item appeared on the editorial page of the Atlanta Constitu- 
tion: 1 

Wanted — Ku Klux Outrages. 

Wanted, a liberal supply of Ku Klux outrages in Georgia. 
They must be as ferocious and blood-thirsty as possible. No 
regard need be paid to the truth. Parties furnishing must be 
precise and circumstantial. They must be supplied during the 
next ten days, to influence the Georgia Bill in the House. 
Accounts of Democrats giving the devil to Republicans are 
preferred. A hash of negroes murdered by the Ku Klux will 
be acceptable. A deuce of bobbery is necessary. Raw head 
and bloody bones, in every style can be served up to profit. 

The highest price paid. Apply to R. B. Bullock, or the 
Slander Mill, Atlanta, Ga., and to Forney's Chronicle, Benjamin 
F. Butler, or to the Reconstruction Committee, Washington, 
D. C. 

Georgia Railroad Bonds traded for this commodity. 

There was a feeling in Congress that Georgia had been 
tinkered with long enough. So in July, 1870, a bill finally 
restoring Georgia to representation was agreed upon. In 
this case the conservative Republicans in both houses, by 
voting for the Bingham amendment to the Georgia bill, 
carried the day against B. F. Butler. The Act of July 15, 
1870, contained this section: 

It is hereby declared that the State of Georgia is entitled to 
representation in the Congress of the United States- But 
nothing in the Act contained shall be construed to deprive the 
people of Georgia of the right to an election for members of 
the General Assembly of said state, as provided for in the 
constitution thereof. 2 

1 April 23, 1870. 

2 U. S. Statutes at Large, 41 C, 2 S., vol. xvi, Public Laws, pp. 363-4. 



269] REORGAXIZED RECONSTRUCTION 2 6g 

The Radicals in the Georgia legislature took up the work 
of Butler and tried to prolong their own term by declaring 
no election until after representatives should be seated in 
Congress. Again prolongation failed, for the resolution 
lacked a majority in the lower house. 1 

At the third session of the Forty-first Congress, Georgia 
members, chosen in the state election in December, 1870, 
were admitted to the House of Representatives. 2 

In the Senate the question was, who were the properly 
accredited senators from Georgia — H. P. Farrow and R. H. 
Whiteley, elected by the reorganized legislature in 1870, or 
Joshua Hill and H. V. M. Miller, chosen by the first ses- 
sion of the reconstruction legislature before the negro mem- 
bers were expelled. The Judiciary Committee of the Sen- 
ate recommended the admission of Hill, reporting that 
Miller was unable to swear to the Test Oath of 1862. By 
special resolution, Congress suspended the test oath for 
Miller, and in February, 1871, he and Hill took their seats, 
the first senators from Georgia to take their places after 
the withdrawal of Toombs and Iverson in 1861. 3 

Thus, it took Georgia six years, from May, 1865, to Feb- 
ruary, 1 87 1, to re-establish normal relations with the Fed- 
eral government. In May, 1865, President Johnson reor- 
ganized the state government by means of military power, 
and a new administration was established on the basis of the 
old electorate, excluding certain classes. The newly-organ- 
ized legislature ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, abolished 
slavery, and insured the election of representatives to Con- 
gress and senators. Congress refused to admit Georgia's 
members and senators, and in March, 1867, remanded the 

1 Senate Journal, 1870, vol. ii, pp. 29, 50; House Journal, pp. 342-3- 
1 Congressional Globe, 41 C, 3 S., pp. 527. 53°, 678, 7^3-7, l oS6. 
'Ibid., 41 C, 3 S., pp. 663. 816-30, 848-51, 871, 1163-84, 1632; Senate 
Reports, 41 C, 3 S., no. 308. 



270 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [270 

state to the condition of military province. Again a state 
government was organized, this time on the basis of a new 
electorate, including negroes and excluding large classes of 
whites. Under this second government the Fourteenth 
Amendment, securing civil rights to negroes, was ratified. 
Representatives to the lower house of Congress were ad- 
mitted, but senators were not seated. In this condition of 
suspended reconstruction, with one foot in and one foot 
out of Congress, Georgia remained until December, 1869. 
Then the state government was remodeled, again by mili- 
tary authority. Ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, 
securing the right of suffrage to negroes, was exacted. And 
at last, by February, 1871, when representatives and sen- 
ators were seated in both houses of Congress, the trouble- 
some question, whether Georgia was a state or not a state, 
was finally settled and normal relations with the other states 
of the Union were resumed. 

With the failure of prolongation schemes in Congress 
and in the state legislature, the Bullock administration 
had to face a popular election. It was a foregone conclu- 
sion that defeat was theirs. The term of the governor and 
half of the members of the Senate and of the House lasted 
until January, 1873, but the other half of the legislature, 
with the members of Congress, were subject to election in 
December, 1870. The result was as expected — a big Demo- 
cratic majority in both houses and four out of seven mem- 
bers of Congress Democrats. The change in political com- 
plexion (racial, as well, in many cases) was marked in some 
counties. In Chatham, Richmond and Burke, three Demo- 
cratic members took the place in the House of the three 
Radicals in each county elected in 1868. Columbia, Han- 
cock, Jefferson, Muscogee, Newton, Oglethorpe, Pulaski, 
Talbot, Warren, Wilkes, each having two members in the 



271] 



REORGANIZED RECONSTRUCTION 



2JI 



lower house, substituted Democrats for Republicans. And 
the same replacing of Republicans by Democrats occurred 
in other counties having one representative each — in Banks, 
Bryan, Campbell, Henry, Laurens, Lincoln, Pierce. With 
very few exceptions counties which sent Conservative rep- 
resentatives in 1868 retained them. Five counties in which 
members were subject to election again returned a full Re- 
publican delegation — Bibb, Clarke, Morgan, Thomas, De- 
catur. 1 Of 86 members elected to the House, 71 were Demo- 
crats. In the Senate, 19 out of 22 elected were Democrats. 

The legal date for the meeting of the new legislature was 
November 1, 1871. With full Democratic control in both 
houses, Governor Bullock foresaw clearly that impeachment 
awaited him. Accordingly, on October 23d, he filed with 
the secretary of the executive department his resignation, 
to take effect on October 30th, two days before the meeting 
of the legislature. The resignation was kept secret until 
the 30th, when B. F. Conley, President of the Senate, was 
sworn in as governor. It was then discovered that Gover- 
nor Bullock had left the state some days before, not to re- 
turn. This was a clever trick on Bullock's part, a last at- 
tempt to prolong Republican control in a state which clearly 
declared itself Democratic. By law, in case of the death 
or resignation of the governor, the office was filled by the 
President of the Senate, in this case, Bullock's Radical ally, 
B. F. Conley. As soon as the legislature came together, or- 
ganizing with L. N. Trammell, Democrat, as President of 
the Senate, and James M. Smith, Democrat, as Speaker of 
the House, the question arose as to who should act as gov- 
ernor — Conley, President of the previous Senate and no 
longer member of the legislature, or Trammell, President 
of the Senate at the time. Conley held on, but was unable 

1 Milledgeville Federal Union, January 3, 1871, gives the party af- 
filiations of newly elected members of the legislature. 



272 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [272 

to enforce his claim to office for the full unexpired term of 
Bullock. The legislature passed over Conley's veto a law 
requiring an election for governor to' be held on the third 
Tuesday of December. 1 At a convention held by the Demo- 
crats prior to the election, James M. Smith, Speaker of the 
House, was nominated for governor. His closest rivals for 
the nomination were General W. T. Wofford, Unionist, 
prominent in the Johnson period of reconstruction and Con- 
servative in the later time, and Herbert Fielder, a Democrat 
of long standing. Alfred H. Colquitt and Ambrose Wright 
of Augusta were also prominently mentioned for the nomi- 
nation. James M. Smith, a lawyer of Columbus, had op- 
posed secession but had gone with the state and served as 
an officer in the Confederate Army. He was a self-made 
man, representing no power of birth or wealth, one of the 
plain people. 2 

The Republicans were in a dilemma as to the best policy 
to pursue. Some of the leaders, mostly anti-Bullock men, 
held a caucus in Atlanta and decided to put a candidate in 
the field. Their choice, James Atkins, member of the legis- 
lature of 1868, declined the nomination. Thus the election 
fell to Smith without opposition. 

With the inauguration of Governor Smith on January 12, 
1872, the Democrats were in full control of both the legis- 
lative and executive departments of the government, and 
rule by the conservative whites was fully restored. 

The first work of the Democratic government was to in- 
vestigate the condition of affairs left by Bullock and to 
undo the work of the Republican government as far as 
possible. In accordance with a resolution passed Decem- 
ber 1, 1 87 1, several investigating committees were ap- 

1 Acts of the General Assembly, 1871, pp. 27-8. 

2 Milledgeville Federal Union, December 13, 1871 ; Avery, History of 
the State of Georgia, p. 466. 



273] REORGANIZED RECONSTRUCTION 273 

pointed, the chief one being instructed " to investigate the 
official conduct of Rufus B. Bullock." This committee, of 
which J. C. Nicholls of the Senate acted as chairman, ex- 
amined many witnesses, whose testimony, published with 
the report of the committee, covers one hundred and sixty- 
one pages. The committee found Bullock guilty of corrup- 
tion in connection with the purchase and equipment of the 
state capitol; it condemned the settlement of the claims of 
the Mitchell heirs against the state ; it charged Bullock with 
wanton extravagance in publishing executive orders and 
proclamations in forty-two papers, paying $140,397 for 
printing in addition to the large sum that went to the state 
printer; it saw in the payment of excessive lawyers' fees 
an attempt by Bullock to subsidize the bar as well as the 
press; corruption was found in the use of the executive 
power of pardon, with some of the governor's political 
household engaging in pardon brokerage; the state peni- 
tentiary was plundered, with no intervention by Bullock 
when his attention was called to it; and convicts were 
leased at about one-fifth of the price offered by responsible 
bidders; in the matter of state aid to railroads, gross cor- 
ruption was found in the payment to roads of subsidies con- 
trary to the terms of the law, especially to those in which 
H. I. Kimball was interested ; in connection with the " pro- 
motion of reconstruction " in 1870, Bullock was declared 
to be guilty of dishonest and illegal practices. In his whole 
administration the committee found that he was guilty of 
general extravagance in every department of his manage- 
ment. 1 

The presiding genius of the investigating committee was 
Robert Toombs, who gave his services free of charge as 
prosecuting attorney against Bullock. The report itself 



1 Report of the Bullock Investigating Committee, pp. 1-45. 



274 RECONSTRUCTION. IN GEORGIA [274 

shows the unmistakable imprint of Toomb's racy style. 
The committee was thoroughly partisan, but the Republi- 
cans themselves could make but small defense against the 
charges. In October, 1872, Bullock attempted to defend 
himself in an Address to the People of Georgia, " a review 
of the revolutionary proceedings of the late repudiating 
legislature — the slander and misrepresentation of the com- 
mittee exposed — a Republican administration contrasted 
with the corrupt and reckless action of the present usurp- 
ing minority, under the lead of General Toombs," A care- 
ful reading of Bullock's defense fails to bring conviction 
that he disproved a single charge of the investigating com- 
mittee. The best that he could do to justify his administra- 
tion was to insist that it was not so bad after all — six hun- 
dred miles of railroad had been constructed, property had 
increased in value by $50,000,000, and the rate of taxation 
had not increased. 

Early in the process of investigating Bullock's career 
the committee found corruption in connection with the 
Opera House purchase, and a warrant was issued for Bul- 
lock's arrest for "larceny after a trust delegated". 1 The ex- 
governor remained beyond the reach of the arm of the law 
for several years, and not until 1876 was the arrest made. 
The case against him was then tried in Georgia, but at that 
late day proof to convict him of connection with criminal 
frauds against the state was insufficient, and acquittal re- 
sulted. 2 

By December, 1872, much had been accomplished toward 
the undoing of the political reconstruction of 1867-8. A 
Democratic governor and Democratic legislature controlled 
the government of the state. The Republican reconstruction 



1 Report of the Bullock Investigating Committee, p. 45- 
3 Avery, op. ext., p. 462. 



275] REORGANIZED RECONSTRUCTION 2 J$ 

governor was a fugitive from justice, under indictment for 
fraud against the state. A large part of the debt which the 
reconstruction government had piled up against the state 
was repudiated. Negroes were no longer a significant ele- 
ment in the body politic. When their leaders were un- 
horsed, negro voters were timid and uncertain, quite willing 
to avoid difficulty by shunning the polls. Negro suffrage 
was not limited by statute, except by the law requiring the 
payment of a poll tax before registration. This require- 
ment, withdrawn by the Republican legislature in 1870 in 
the negro's favor, was restored to work against him in 
187 1. 1 By intimidation and a thousand and one kinds of 
indirect influence, the negro was made to feel that his 
sphere was the field, not politics, and that polling places 
were not healthy resorts for black men. 

By the close of 1872, with the negro no longer an im- 
portant political factor and Republican control in the state 
broken, the two main achievements of congressional recon- 
struction were overthrown. 

1 Acts of the General Assembly, 1870, pp. 431-2: 1871, p. 74. 



■ 



PART III 



ECONOMIC PROGRESS AND 
SOCIAL CHANGES 



CHAPTER XI 



Agriculture, 1867- 1872 

The year 1867 saw no revolution in the agricultural sys- 
tem of Georgia at all commensurate with the upheaval in 
politics brought on by military reconstruction. On the 
whole, it is surprising that the political changes in these 
years were wrought without more serious damage to eco- 
nomic prosperity. The real cataclysm in agriculture came 
when the slave laborer first became free. The disturbance 
occasioned by the emergence of the freedman into a voter 
was but a slight tremor as compared with the upheaval of 
1865-6. Tendencies which appeared in the first year and a 
half of free labor continued in 1867 and after with no par- 
ticularly new development. But by the end of the recon- 
struction period changes going on slowly in the agricultural 
system became more apparent. Large plantations broke up 
into smaller farming units ; the number of farms, especially 
of the smaller size, increased greatly, while the acreage 
under cultivation decreased ; the supply of agricultural labor 
diminished steadily, and the scheme of employment increas- 
ingly tended toward payment in shares rather than in 
money wages, with less and less control by the planter over 
the laborers. With contraction in acreage under cultivation 
and decrease in the labor supply, farm land was much in 
the market and property values suffered a decided shrink- 
age. Still, cotton continued to hold its own as the dominant 
interest of land and labor. 

Figures are not available for the comparison of the num- 
279] 279 



2 8o RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ 2 8o 

ber and size of farms in Georgia at the beginning and at 
the end of the reconstruction period, but by comparing the 
figures of i860 and 1870 we can approximate the result. 
No change to amount to anything in this respect occurred 
during the war, so it may be safe to assume that the situa- 
tion at the beginning of the war continued practically the 
same up to 1865. While the number of farms increased in 
this decade, the total acreage in farms decreased by three 
million acres. 1 Besides the total decrease in acreage, in 1870 
the per cent of unimproved land to the total farm acreage 
was greater — 71.1 per cent in 1870, 69.7 per cent in i860. 
With free labor the farmer was unable to cultivate as much 
land as he had tilled with slaves; hence the unit of culti- 
vation was appreciably smaller. In i860 the average size 
of farms in Georgia was 430 A. ; in 1870, 338 A. 2 But the 

Acreage in Farms 





Number of 
acres in 
farms, total. 


Improved. 


Unimproved. 


Per cent. 


of unim- 


proved to 
total land 
in farms. 


Average size 
farms. 


i860 


26,650,490 


8,062,758 


18,587,732 






69.7 43° A 




23,647»94i 1 


6,831,856 


16,816,085 






71.1 


338 A 


1880 


26,043,282 

i 


8,204,720 


17,838,562 






68.5 


188 A 



average size of farms is by no means as fair an indication 
of the contraction in planting as is the size of the dominant 



X U, S .Census, 1870, vol. iii, pp. 340-41 ; Compendium of the Census of 1880, 
pt. i, pp. 650-657. 

3 Mr. Brooks calls attention to the fact that some of the changes recorded by the 
Census in 1880 must have taken place in 1870. Because of inaccuracy the Cen- 
sus statistics for 1870 can give only an approximate idea of the changes that 
were taking place. Brooks, Agrarian Revolution in Georgia, p. 41. 



28l] 



AGRICULTURE, 1867-1872 



28l 



farm unit. In i860, there were more farms in the group 
100-500 A. than in any other class; ten years later the farm 
of 20-50 A. was most common. Further, it is noteworthy 



Number and Size of Farms 





numbi 


< 





i Q 




cS 







| 





H 


M 

^ 





O O 

M 1 10 


i860 


■ 


906 


2,803 


13,644 14,129 


1870 


69,956 


3.257 


6,942 


21,971 18,371 


1880 


138,626 


3»i 10 


1 

8,6941 


36,524 26,OC4 



o 
o 

i-r> 
I 

O 

o 



• 


AO 






13 





fl 
rt 


I 




8 






419 



that the smallest farms multiplied most rapidly in number, 
and the largest diminished to the greatest extent. A farm, 

Per Cent in 1870 of the Number of Farms in i860 

3-10 A 350 per cent. 

10-20 A 240 per cent. 

20-50 A 160 per cent. 

50-100 A 130 per cent. 

100-500 A 92 per cent. 

500-1000 A 55 per cent. 

Over 1000 A 46 per cent. 

in this sense, means a unit of cultivation, whether tilled by 
the owner or by a tenant. 

The counties most affected by the break-up of the larger 
into smaller units of cultivation were conspicuously the 
coast counties, where labor was most disorganized in 1865 
and demoralized in 1868. In all the coast counties — Chat- 
ham, Bryan, Liberty, Mcintosh, Glynn and Camden — the 
number of farms more than doubled in this decade. This 
disintegration was due primarily to the failure of the rice 



282 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [282 

and sea-island cotton planting, and to the opportunity of 
negroes to take up small farms of their own. In four of 
these counties the dominant size of the farm was less than 
10 A. ; in Liberty County, 10-20 A. ; and in Bryan, 20-50 A. 
In most of the counties of the pine barrens in the southeast- 
ern section the number of farms greatly increased, espec- 
ially the small farm of less than 50 A. In many of the 
cotton-belt counties, likewise, the process of disintegration 
of large plantations was marked, in Burke, Columbia, Har- 
ris, Houston, Meriwether, Monroe, Muscogee, Washington, 
and Wilkes, as the following table indicates : 1 





Numbei of 
farms of 
all sizes. 


< 



M 

1 

f> 


<i 


« 



H 


ao-50 A. 

. _ 1 


•y 001-0S 


100-500 A. 


1 

< 

M 

8 


Over 1000 A. 




i860 


1870 


1 1 
i860 187O 


i860 I87O 

I I 


i 

i860 1870! 

| 1 


i860 

1 

i 


1870 


1 

t86o 1870 

j 


1 

'i860 I87O 

1 


i860 


1870 




675 
388 


847 
617 


2 3 


1 

8 


83 
26 


! 80 


1 
| 

245 

1 

158, 


99 
76 


467 

153 


. ^ 

! 

315 39 

1 

208 328 


IOO 


1 

10 


— 
12 




Columbia 


1 — ! 7 


4 


53 


. : ■ 

35 


I 

25 


20 


Harris ... . ... 


683 


960 


10] 18 


10 


22 


80 


! 

aii; 

1 


144 


324 


360 370 


6, 


15 


*7 




Houston 


487 


78* 


* "I 


5 


i 


33 


149. 


83 


201 


| 229 j 345 


96 




40 


13 


Meriwether. . . 


685 


909 

1 


— 6 


6 


55' 


68 


317 ! 


163 


270 


37<>! 255 

1 




7 : 

. 1 


15 




Monroe ....... 


66a 


800 


ii ii 

1 1 


■3 


22 | 


53 


230 


105 


a 74 


! 380 ( 266 

I 


94 


7 


27 




Washington ... 


697 


1653 


1 I 
16! 1 

1 | 


19 




81 


886 

| 


151 


464 


1 

| 358 j 276 


52 


9! 


20 


2 


Wilkes 


393 


5*3 

: 


11 ii 


5 


19' 


3^ 


113 


57 


149 


202 212 

1 i 


69 


16 




3 




1 | 





The explanation of the process of change in these coun- 
ties as elsewhere is that tenancy had made a strong invasion 
as a scheme of cultivation, and with the contraction in 
planting, due to the high cost and uncertainty of labor, par- 
cels of less productive land were taken up by negroes. 



1 U. S. Census, 1870, vol. iii, pp. 348-349; t86o, Agriculture, p. 196. 



AGRICULTURE, 1867-1872 283 
of the first effects of emancipation was a fall in 



PREVAILING SIZE OF FARMS, 187O 




50- 100 A. 
I00-500A. 



land values in the entire state. The average taxable value 



283] 
One 



284 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



of land in Georgia, $4.85 per acre in i860, fell to $2.87 
per acre in 1872. The heaviest loss was borne by the 
cotton-belt. In most of the cotton-belt counties in i860 the 
average per acre was $5-7; in 1872, $3-5. In five of the 
cotton-producing counties values decreased over 70 per 
cent during the war and reconstruction periods. In eleven 
counties the decrease was between 60 per cent and 70 per 
cent, and in nineteen more, over 50 per cent. Thirty-seven 
counties in all lost in land valuation more than half the 
value of i860. For example, in i860, in the great cotton 
counties, Dougherty, Lee and Houston, the average taxable 
value of land was over $9 per acre, the choicest area of the 
cotton-belt. In 1872, the average had fallen to only $3-5 
per acre. The richest grain counties of the northwest held 
their own considerably better. Before the war land in 
Catoosa, Gordon, Floyd, Bartow and Polk averaged over 
$9, but in 1872 was worth only $5-7. 1 

It is an undoubted fact that there was a steady decrease 
in the amount of agricultural labor for hire in Georgia 
from 1865 to 1872. The year 1866 ended disastrously for 
both planter and laborer, hence many negroes availed them- 
selves of the opportunity to get better pay in the neighbor- 
ing states to the southwest. This drain by migration left 
many sections inadequately supplied with hands, and com- 
plaints came from all sides concerning the insufficiency of 
labor, in spite of the higher wages paid in 1867 than in the 
previous year. 2 The reports of the comptroller general 
confirm the day-by-day accounts of newspapers that labor 

1 Reports of the Comptroller General, i860, pp. 38-9; 1872, pp. 25-9. 
In any comparison of values before and after the war it must be 
borne in mind that in the latter period gold was at a premium. 

2 Augusta Chronicle, March 9, 1867; Milledgeville Federal Union, 
February 12, 1867; Southern Cultivator, March and June, 1867; Report 
of the Freedmen's Bureau in the Report of the Secretary of War, 
1867-8, vol. i, p. 675. 



285] AGRICULTURE, 1867-1872 285 

grew more and more scarce. Taking the years 1867 and 
1872, for instance, there was a most decided diminution in 
the number of hands employed in most sections of the state. 
In almost all of the southwestern counties, where black 
population increased rapidly between i860 and 1870, hired 
hands became fewer and fewer in the reconstruction period. 
In Dougherty County, one of the largest cotton-producing 
counties in Georgia, the number of hands decreased 47 per 
cent in these five years. Since migration did not affect 
the diminution of the labor force in Southwest Georgia, 
other circumstances must account for the abnormally large 
decrease in the number of hanpls employed after 1867. This 
was the newest cotton section of Georgia, with much wild 
land not opened to cultivation before the war. Here ne- 
groes found an easy opportunity to gratify their desire to 
take up holdings of their own. By 1874 the southwest and 
the southeast, the coast land and pine barrens adjoining, 
were the two centers of negro landholdings. In Decatur 
County, for instance, at the extreme southwest corner of 
Georgia, by 1873, IO >75 1 A. were owned by sixty negro pro- 
prietors. 1 Then railroad construction in this section drained 
labor from agriculture. And still another reason for the 
diminution in hired labor between 1867 and 1872 is this: 
in 1867, in comparison with the rest of the state, the 
southwest was exceptionally well supplied with hands, for 
the economic revolution of 1865 was slower in getting under 
way here than in the older part of the cotton belt or on the 
coast. 

In Central Georgia all of the counties adjoining Bibb suf- 
fered noticeablv in the loss of field hands. Houston had 
only 2,846 in 1872 as compared with 4,201 in 1867; in 
Monroe, the number decreased from 3,458 to 1,240; in 



1 Banks, Economics of Land Tenure in Georgia, pp. 67-8, 127. 



286 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ 2 86 



Jones, from 1,750 to 1,176; in Twiggs, from 1,999 to 1,699; 
in Crawford, from 1,452 to 1,319. In these particular coun- 
ties the attractiveness of the city of Macon in Bibb County 
probably accelerated other f orces in drawing negroes away 
from the field. On the coast very few negroes were willing 
to hire to an employer. In Liberty County there were 
1,238 hands working for white planters in 1867, and only 
50 in 1872; in Mcintosh, 896 in 1867, and 130 five years 
later. In the white counties of the north and the sparsely 
settled pine barrens of the south, the number of hands, al- 
ways small, grew appreciably less. However, in some of 
the older counties of the cotton-belt there were more hands 
at work in 1872 than in 1867. While some counties, like! 
Washington, Jefferson and Putnam, gained in the supply 
of hired laborers, the adjoining counties in the same section, 
Burke, Columbia, Greene, Oglethorpe, Wilkes and Warren, 
lost hands. The migration was local, however, for in the 
whole section the supply of hired labor was about the same 
in 1872 as in 1867. 

In these years correspondents of newspapers, writing con- 
cerning agricultural conditions and prospects, made fre- 
quent note of the steady thinning-out of labor each year. 1 
A correspondent from Bulloch County wrote: 

Why is it that the planter with all the land and all the capital 
is dependent upon an independent negro, who has neither 
land nor money? Why is it that the farmer's wife and 
daughter are driven to the cook-pot, or wash-tub, when there 
are perhaps a half-dozen able-bodied negroes within a short 
distance, whom neither love nor money can induce to perform 
this menial service? 2 

1 Macon Telegraph, January 19, 22, March 3, 17, 21, 1869; Southern 
Cultivator, November, 1868; February and March, 1869; July, 1870; 
February, 1871 ; Savannah News, January 21, 1868. 

1 Southern Cultivator, February, 1871. 



287] AGRICULTURE, 1867-1878 2 g^ 



Number of Hands Employed 1 





| 

1867 j 

1 


1869 


1870 


1871 


1872 


Southwest : 


| 


~~ 










U 1 


2637 


3341 


1722 


1660 




2c8c 


IQ4I 


2186 


l6"?4 


I896 




1901 


IOIO 


I 380 


I IQ3 


084 




* "J7 


1 120 


I l6l 


02O 


IOCS 




I4Q2 


1 143 


1 30 n 


1431 


1 302 




1298 


1120 


1 20 3 


I I90 


960 




I676 


Q83 


I 34d 


1424 


1472 




l8« 


1474 


m84 


l82C 
J 


l670 




*393 


1344 

JTT 




I l8C 


1 187 




1454 


II 12 




843 


■577 




1249 


701 


1014 


077 


1098 


Eastern cotton belt: 














23IC 


1978 


2^8 


2886 


2987 




2108 


2108 


24CC 


2670 


2610 




2032 


2118 


22 30 


2448 


2400 




IOQ1 


1070 


IO6 1 


1048 


1 171 




2729 


2232 


26^?I 


2664 


28^6 




2279 


1962 


1838 


2146 


2508 




645 


1 395 


I 504 


1892 


2176 




4595 


1 109 


• . • • 


2886 


I462 




2789 


2334 


20I I 


914 


IO90 




.... 


.... 


• • • • 


1196 


855 




» 795 


*357 


1347 


1301 


I267 




1325 


1024 


IO76 


1216 


I308 




i 2345 


2246 


2316 


2313 


1915 




2264 


1093 


IO56 


• • • • 


1688 




1997 


1215 


I280 


1814 


'933 


Elbert 


, 1723 


1669 


1639 


1806 


964 


Walton 8 


| 1329 


1468 


l620 


1535 


1680 




309 


364 


6O5 


1312 


1466 




312 


894 


931 


1 1 14 

j 


1048 



The editor of the Macon Telegraph thought he could ex- 
plain in part the unavailing clamor for more hands. In 
July, 1869, when one of the negro leaders was under trial 
in the U. S. Commissioner's court in Macon, two or three 
hundred negroes looked on all day. " From 2,000 to 3,000 

1 These figures are taken from the Reports of the Comptroller General. 

a McDuffie county was created out of parts of Columbia and Warren counties 
in 1870. 

3 These counties are not properly in the cotton-belt. 



288 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[288 



bales of cotton lay in the muscles of those stout and greasy 
fellows, who were ' wasting their sweetness ' in the stifling 
atmosphere of the court room with the mercury about 90 
outside ". 1 In the spring of 1868 came word from Waynes- 
boro : " The all absorbing question is not impeachment, 
nor reconstruction, nor repudiation, nor the next President, 
but labor." What was to be done? Pick the best hands 
and the best land, sell one-half or two-thirds of the land, 
and as for the surplus negroes — well, let the political econo- 
mist take care of them. This was the somewhat cynical ad- 
vice of a dejected planter. 2 

Though figures are not available, the general proposition 
is incontrovertible that more and more negroes each year 
gave up working for wages and took up small parcels of 
ground to farm as tenants or as owners. By 1874 negro 
landholders in Georgia held taxable titles to 338,769 acres. 3 
For instance, at the beginning of the season of 1869 many 
negroes left Macon to ! try farming on their own account in 
the country. Just outside of Augusta, in 1870, there were 
about one hundred negro families settled on small home- 
steads of an average value of $100 to $500, purchased on 
small installments. In early January of the same year, a 
city reporter of an Augusta paper noted that many f reed- 
men were in town, trying to purchase stock to farm for 
themselves. 4 In Houston, a rich cotton county in Middle 
Georgia, several freedmen bought farms from 100 to 600 A. 
each, one man planting for 50 bales of cotton. A company 
of negroes owned together 1,500 A., and two brothers who 

1 Macon Telegraph, July 21, 1869. 
s Southern Cultivator, April, 1868. 
3 Banks, op. cit., p. 63. 

* Macon Telegraph, January 13, 1869; Augusta Constitutionalist, Janu- 
ary 5, 1870; Alvord, Letters from the South, January 13, 1870. 



289] AGRICULTURE, 1867-1872 2 g 9 

had saved $600 got title to 1,500 A., with credit for the 
balance. J. W. Alvord of the Freedmen's Bureau, a most 
optimistic observer of the progress of the negro in free- 
dom, gave this glowing account of the freedmen's success 
in Georgia, doubtless true for some individuals, but 
hardly typical : " The first year they worked for bare sub- 
sistence; the second year they bought stock — mules, imple- 
ments, etc.; the third year, many rented lands; and now, 
the fourth year, large numbers are prepared to buy. This 
is the record of the most industrious — others are following 
at a slower pace." 1 

The work of railroad construction and repair gave em- 
ployment to many negroes tired of field labor. Especially 
was this the case in South Georgia when the Brunswick and 
Albany and the Atlantic and Gulf railroads absorbed much 
labor. From Dooly and other counties in South and Cen- 
tral Georgia the B. and A. R. R. in 1869 took about 5,000 
hands from the production of cotton. The trades, car- 
pentry, brick-making, etc., furnished attractions in towns 
to draw off a goodly number of skilled workers from the 
plantation. 2 Migration and emigration helped to account 
for the decrease in the agricultural labor supply. High 
wages in states further south and west continued to provide 
inducements to the Georgia negro. Besides, many negroes, 
who had been taken to the comparatively new plantations of 
Southwest Georgia before or during the war, strayed back 
to their original homes. 3 The drift of negroes to< towns, the 
distraction of politics, the prevalence of tenancy, and the 

1 Alvord, op. cit., January 18, 1870. 

1 Macon Telegraph, January 19, 22, March 17, 1869. 

3 Alvord, op. cit.; Macon Telegraph, March 17, 1869; Southern Culti- 
vator, November, 1868; Savannah News, July 2, 1867, January 21, 1868; 
Milledgeville Federal Union, February 12, 1867. 



290 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ 2 go 

exodus of women from field labor, all helped to account for 
the diminution of the labor supply. 

Difficulties in the way of the restoration of the old plan- 
tation system in 1865-6, instead of lessening, became all 
the greater as time went on. In the next five years, from 
1867 to the end of the reconstruction period, inroads made 
upon the plantation method of employment and cultivation 
— less supervision by the owner over the workers, and cul- 
tivation by small groups or by individuals instead of gang 
labor — were more strongly intrenched. The share method 
of payment was more used than money wage, and tenancy 
continued to gain hold. This does not mean that planta- 
tions in the old sense of the word disappeared. However, 
it was only the planter of the most skilful managing ability, 
with ample capital or command of credit, that was able to 
continue successfully the old plantation economy. A con- 
spicuous example of a successful planter who did not have 
to yield to the new demands of the negroes was Colonel 
Lockett, in Dougherty County, who was reputed to be the 
largest planter in the state. He cultivated 10,000 A. — 7,000 
A. in cotton and the rest in corn — employed more than 300 
hands and had a black population of more than a thousand 
on his plantation. His hands were worked under strict 
supervision and were paid a money wage quarterly. Field 
hands were classified according to the amount of work they 
could do and wages for each class were stipulated by the 
employer, to which was added one ration, consisting of four 
pounds of bacon and one peck of cornmeal per week to 
each laborer. Though the negroes did not work as they did 
before the war, still plantation work progressed smoothly 
and profits, except from the increase of blacks, were, on 
the whole, larger than in ante-bellum times. The re- 
markable success of Colonel Lockett was attributed to his 



291] AGRICULTURE. 1867-1872 

unusual executive ability and notable skill in managing 
negroes, 1 

But the majority of planters had less success in maintain- 
ing the old routine. Frances Butler Leigh gave the fol- 
lowing account of the method of employment on her father's 
plantations : 

On both places the work is done on the old system, by task. 2 
We tried working by the day. indeed I think we were obliged to 
do so by the agent of the Freedmen's Bureau, to whom all our 
contracts had to be submitted,, but we found it did not answer 
at all. the negroes themselves btgging to be allowed to go back 
to the old task system ... In all other ways the work went 
on just as it did in the old times. The force, of about three 
hundred, was divided into gangs, each working under a head 
man — the old negro drivers, who are now called captains, out 
of compliment to the changed times. These men make a return 
of the work each night, and it is very- amusing to hear them 
say, as each man's name is called. '"He done him work;" 
" He done half him task; " or "Ain't sh'um" (have not seen 
him)- They often did overwork when urged, and were of 
course credited for the same on the books. 3 

At the end of 1867. after her father's death, it became 
Miss Butler's duty to pay the negroes for the previous two 
years, dividing the proceeds of the crops according to the 
amount due each mam The negroes' childlike ignorance of 
money and of the expense of their own maintenance made 
it a hopeless job to satisfy each one. Miss Butler narrated 
her experience in paying the negroes as follows : 

1 Hunfs Merchant Magazine , October, 1869; Ku Klux Committee, 
vol. vii, p. 833 (Test.: C. W. Howard, editor of an agricultural paper, 
the Plantation.') 

J Work by task was the rule on ante-bellum rice plantations. 

5 Leigh. Ten Years on a Georgia Plantation, pp. 55-6. 



292 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



My father had given each negro a little pass-book, in which 
he entered from time to time the food, clothing and money 
which each had received from him on account. Of these little 
books there were over three hundred, which represented their 
debits ; then there was the large plantation ledger, in which an 
account of the work each man had, or had not, done every 
day for nearly two years, had been entered, which represented 
their credits. To the task of balancing these two accounts 
I set myself, wishing to feel sure that it was fairly done, and 
also because I knew the negroes would be more satisfied with 
my settlement. Night after night, when the day's work was 
over, I sat up till two or three o'clock in the morning, going 
over and over the long line of figures, and by degrees got 
them pretty straight. I might have saved myself the trouble. 
Not one negro understood it a bit, but all were quite convinced 
they had been cheated, most of them thinking that each man 
was entitled to half the crop. I was so anxious they should 
understand and see they had been fairly dealt with, that I 
went over and over again each man's account with him, and 
would begin, " Well, Jack (or Quash, or Nero, as the case 
might be), you got on such a date ten yards of homespun 
from your master." " Yes, missus, massa gave me dat." 
" Then on such and such a day you had ten dollars." " Yes, 
missus, dat so." And so on to the end of their debits, all of 
which they acknowledged at once. ( I have thought since they 
were not clever enough to conceive the idea of disputing that 
part of the business.) When all these items were named and 
agreed to, I read the total amount, and then turned to the 
work account. And here the trouble began, every man insist- 
ing upon it that he had not missed one day in the whole two 
years, and had done full work each day. So after endless dis- 
cussions, which always ended just where they began, I paid 
them the money due to them, which was always received with 
the same remark, " Well, well, work for massa for two whole 
years, and only get dis much." Finding that their faith in 
my father's justice never wavered, I repeated and repeated and 
repeated, " But I am paying you from your master's own books 



293] 



AGRICULTURE, 1867-1872 



2 93 



and accounts-" But the answer was always the same, " No, 
no, missus, massa not treat us so." Neither, oddly enough, 
did they seem to think I wished to cheat them, but I was 
powerless to help matters, one man saying to me one day, 
" You see, missus, a woman ai'nt much 'count." 1 

Indeed, the division of the crop among the hands ac- 
cording to each one's labor was by no means a simple task, 
even for a man. One perplexed farmer appealed to the 
editor of the Southern Cultivator to solve his problem for 
him, which was to divide $546.83 among four hands in this 
proportion : 2 



Though planters exerted great effort to continue the old 
" associated labor " system, the plan gradually gave way to 
the " squad system by which only two to eight or ten 
hands worked together, in many instances a single family. 
The squad system was much less productive on large plan- 
tations, for by it there could be no concerted action or fair 
division of labor. 3 

One stage in the disintegration of the ante-bellum plan- 
tation is pictured in the records of a rice plantation on the 
Savannah River. 4 In 1867, the owner of two plantations, 
unable to manage both with free labor, leased one. The 
lessee divided the land into five parts of 78 A. each, with 
an intelligent negro, experienced in rice culture, at the 

1 Leigh, op. cit., pp. 75-6. 

2 Southern Cultivator, October, 1868. 

3 Hunt's Merchant Magazine, September, 1869. 

4 Copies of the records of the Manigault Plantations of East Hermitage 
and Gowrie, made by Prof. U. B. Phillips. 




294 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [294 

head of each division, as foreman. It was the foreman's 
business to superintend the cultivation in all stages until 
the rice was threshed and ready for market. Each foreman 
procured his own hands, about ten in each division. In the 
contracts between the employer and his foremen, the em- 
ployer agreed to furnish land, trunk lumber, mules, ploughs, 
plantation tools, and one-half of the seed rice, bought by 
the employer and deducted out of the negroes' wages. The 
negroes were to furnish their own provisions, or if the em- 
ployer furnished food the cost was to be deducted. At the 
end of the year, after all plantation expenses were paid, 
one-half of the net profits were to be divided among the 
negroes. 

A more complete account of the process of disintegration 
into the squad method of cultivation, then gradually to ten- 
ancy, is given of a plantation in Oglethorpe County. For 
several years after the war the labor force was divided into 
two squads, each working as formerly under an overseer 
or foreman. Payment was made in a share of the crop. 
Gradually the squads broke up into smaller and smaller 
groups with less and less oversight, until finally, each man 
worked a separate farm, becoming a tenant. The landlord 
gave no direction except to see that enough cotton was 
planted to pay the rent (750 lbs. lint cotton to a one-horse 
farm, 25-30 A.). 1 

A negro much preferred to get bare subsistence out of a 
little patch of ground which he rented and controlled for 
himself than to have a neat surplus at the end of the year 
by working under direction. Unambitious of accumulating 
capital, the freedmen were all eager to have a home, a mule, 
cow and hogs set apart from the others. Thus, they were 
willing to work for a food crop for themselves and a mod- 



narrow, "A Georgia Plantation," Scribner's Monthly, April, 1881 ; 
Brooks, Agrarian Revolution in Georgia, p. 45. 



295] AGRICULTURE, 1867-1872 2 g$ 

erate cotton crop to pay their rent. 1 Agreements with ten- 
ants sometimes called for rent payment in a share of the 
crop, and sometimes in cash. Share tenants usually received 
all the capital for their farm from the owner, and so were 
subject to a certain degree of supervision since they gave no 
security but their labor. Cash tenants, who furnished stock 
and all equipment except the land, reached a higher degree 
of economic freedom. Cash tenants could under certain 
circumstances draw directly upon merchants for their sup- 
plies without dependence on the landlord for their credit. 2 
Before the reconstruction period came to an end schemes 
of employment were so many and so varied that no regular 
system prevailed. Where planters were able to hire hands, 
money wages, payment in a share of the crop, or a com- 
bination of both were used. With the uncertainty of cotton 
prices, farming was largely speculative. Hence, share pay- 
ments for labor tended to be more common than fixed money 
wages. At the beginning of 1867 the high price of cotton 
stimulated competition among planters for labor and re- 
sulted in high wages for negro hands. 3 The failure of the 
cotton interests in 1867 — large crop, low price, but high 
cost of production — brought wages in 1868 to a consider- 
ably lower level. In 1867 the offer of high wages by plant- 
ers in the west and south, together with the expectation at 
the beginning of the season of 20-25 cent cotton, was favor- 
able to the laborer. But in 1868, when the fall in cotton 
subdued the cotton mania, labor was no longer scarce. 

1 Hunt's Merchant Magazine, September, 1869. 

2 Brooks, op. ext., pp. 32-3. In 1873 the first law was passed which 
recognized this arrangement. A Lien Law gave merchants a lien on 
the crops of tenants as well as on those of farmers. 

3 Southern Cultivator, July and November, 1867, gives estimate of 
wages, $125 and rations; Freedmen's Bureau report in Report of the 
Secretary of War, 1867, vol. i, p. 675. 



296 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [296 

Planters who paid as much as $i5o-$20O for hands in 1867, 
did not want them at half the price in 1868. Wages paid 
by some planters for 1868 were $6 a month, with board for 
men, in Middle Georgia; $8 in Southwest Georgia, and $4 
or $5 for women and boys, or their equivalent in a share of 
the crop. Still the share system seemed to be more com- 
monly used, though many of the best planters had strong 
objections to it, because of the limitation of control over the 
laborer and the consequent abuse of stock it involved. 1 

A careful observer of the money- wage and crop-sharing 
systems in 1869 concluded that neither worked satisfactorily 
By shares, the worker in many instances received one-half 
of the corn and cotton, if he " found " himself, or else one- 
third or one-fourth of the crop if rations were provided. 
Money wages ranged from $10 to $15 per month for prime 
hands. The planter had more control over the wage 
laborer, could carry out a general system of plantation im- 
provements, but had no way of making sure of the laborer's 
services during the critical crop season. The share system 
brought difficulties in carrying out the general work of the 
farm — ditching, repairing buildings, fences, clearing new 
lands — and tended to the abuse of stock and farm imple- 
ments. Considering the merits and demerits of both sys- 
tems, the planter suggested a combination of both money 
and share payments, the wage to secure the supervision of 
the laborer by the employer and the share to stimulate the 
interest of the worker in the crop and to hold him to the 
end of the harvest season. 2 This scheme was practised in 
many places — a kind of profit-sharing arrangement. In 
1870 and 1 87 1 conditions of employment continued much 

1 Southern Cultivator, January, 1868; Freedmen's Bureau Report, 
Secretary of War, 1868-9, vol. i, p. 1044. 

1 Hunt's Merchant Magazine, October, 1869. 



297] AGRICULTURE, 1867-1872 2 gy 

the same as in the two previous years, with a strengthening 
of the scheme of share employment and a growing number 
of negro tenants. 

A movement by some of the leading negro politicians to 
control wages took shape in a labor convention held in 
Macon in 1869. The leaders of the movement were the 
negro politicians, Jeff Long and H. M. Turner, backed by 
two white carpet-baggers, J. E. Bryant of Augusta and J. 
C. Swayze, editor of a Radical newspaper, the American 
Union. Their purpose was to organize a union among the 
negroes, pledged to demand as a minimum wage $30 a 
month for field hands and $15 for women. Results of the 
Macon convention were noted in various places, and natur- 
ally received unfavorable comment from newspapers, repre- 
senting the employing class. In Macon there was some- 
thing like a small strike among negroes, and in Dougherty 
County a more serious one. At a meeting in Houston 
County, negro laborers announced the stated wage as their 
minimum demand. At another meeting, the negroes pre- 
sented their demands for the tenant system, by which the 
planter should furnish land, stock, fertilizer, food for stock, 
implements, and rations for hands, the negroes to work 
free from direction and pay as rent one-fourth of the cotton 
and one-third of the corn. Emissaries were sent by the 
Macon leaders to organize county associations among field 
hands, but their efforts were unsuccessful and no permanent 
or widespread effects were noticed from this first attempt to 
organize the negro field hands on a labor-union basis. 1 

It is most surprising to the reader of the daily papers 
and agricultural journals from 1867 to 1870, years of politi- 
cal ferment, to find comparatively little comment on the de- 

1 Macon Telegraph, October 2, 1869; Milledgeville Federal Union, 
November 16, 1869 (from Columbus Sun) ; Avery, History of the 
State of Georgia, p. 416. 



298 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [298 

moralizing effect of politics on the negro. On the coast, 
such demoralization was extreme and continuous, but else- 
where it was only moderate and sporadic. The first disor- 
ganization came in 1867, when registration under the Mili- 
tary Acts was in progress. In Houston County, where 
blacks predominated, registration attracted much attention 
from the newly enfranchised, who went in crowds, suspend- 
ing labor for some days. But even then it was reported 
that the negroes worked better in 1867 than in 1866. 1 In 
1868 laborers were slow in getting to work, refusing to 
make contracts for a time in the hope that something would 
turn up or that some relief would come from the constitu- 
tional convention in session in Atlanta. In the late summer 
of that year came reports from Central Georgia that much 
meeting in secret clubs and drilling kept the negroes in high 
excitement, making them slack in their plantation labor, if 
not entirely idle. 2 However, in the years 1867-70, the cot- 
ton crop was fairly respectable in amount. In 1870 it sur- 
passed the largest crop raised under slavery. This would 
have been quite impossible had negro labor been thor- 
oughly demoralized by the new toy of the ballot. Whether 
it was the fear of the Ku Klux or what it was that kept 
the negroes at work is beside the question here. But the 
fact remains that the greater bulk of the cotton crop was 
the product of the freedmen's labor, and the political revo- 
lution of 1867-8 brought by no means as serious a disor- 
ganization in the labor force as did emancipation in 1865-6. 

At the beginning of 1867 very grave difficulties con- 
fronted the cotton planter. 1866 had ended in failure so 
that only about one planter in four, it was estimated, had 
any surplus. The failure of 1866 was assigned to many 



1 Savannah News, July 1, 1867, correspondent from Houston County. 

2 Milledgeville Federal Union, August 18, 1868. 



299] AGRICULTURE, 1867-1872 2 gg 

circumstances: first of all, to the high price of cotton at the 
beginning of the year, about 50 cents, which stimulated the 
use of all sorts of land, bad and indifferent; to the late 
start in planting when labor was demoralized and to the 
continued uncertainty of free labor; to bad management 
when negroes were rewarded with shares — too little directed 
in their labor; to the fact that many old experienced plant- 
ers gave up, yielding to young, inexperienced managers; 
and that many soldiers, formerly overseers, got into the 
business, lacking means and credit when depression came; 
and in addition to all these, to many natural plagues — cut 
and boll worms, rot, caterpillars, rust and rain, and every- 
thing else that cotton was heir to. 1 Over-emphasis on cot- 
ton and the failure of provision crops brought distress and 
hardship. The general scheme of planting for 1867 was 
to cultivate less land, use more fertilizer, and economize on 
labor. But with cotton at 35 cents at the beginning of 1867 
the planter could not resist the temptation of another 
gamble, putting in the staple heavily and again slighting 
food crops. The Southern Cultivator advised the planter: 
" Do not let a mania for cotton planting make a fool of 
you again, and prevent putting in a bountiful crop of corn. 
Corn has no tax on it." 2 But despite the warning of wise 
heads, cotton was still the only term in which the planter 
could think and the surest basis for credit with the mer- 
chant or factor who advanced supplies. The motto of the 
planter continued thus : " Plant more cotton, to make more 
money, to buy more corn to feed upon, while we make 
more cotton to get more money to buy more corn ". 3 The 
season of 1867 likewise was disastrous. The crop itself 

1 Southern Cultivator, May and June, 1867; Augusta Chronicle, Janu- 
ary 11, 1867. 
* February, 1867. 

3 Augusta Chronicle, May 10, 1867 (from Sandersville Georgian). 



300 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [300 

was encouraging in bulk, almost doubling that of 1866 
(1866, 255,965 bales; 1867, 495,959 bales). But the heavy 
crop all over the Southern states brought the price down 
with a tumble. In the marketing season of 1867, Septem- 
ber to January, the New York price for middling cotton was 
!534 to 27 cents, whereas the year before it had been 32 
to 40. 1 

Cotton Prices 8 



1865 



January . . . 
February 

March 

April 

May 

June 

July 

August . . . 
September • 
October . . 
November . 
December . 



1866 ; 1867 1868 j 1869 



47-5 1 33-35 
44-48 132-33 

40-4429-31 

131-38 25-27 

! 33-40 27-28 

1 37-39! 26-27 

[35-3626-28 

32-36 27-28 

44-45 j 32-38 22-27 
49-59 139-42 i 18-20 
49-56 33-39'i6-i9 
49-51 33-34 , i5" I 7 



15-19I28- 
20-23; 28- 

24- 26 28 
29-32^8 
3i-32|28 

29- 3 A 30- 

3 - 3234 

29-30|33- 

25- 29 29- 

25-26 26- 
24-25 25- 
24-26 25 



29 
30 



33 

35 

•35 
27 

27 



1870 



1871 1872 



25 
23- 
21- 
22- 
22- 
21- 
20 

19 
18- 

15- 
16- 

15- 



25 
23 
23 
23 
22 



19 
16 

17 

16 



15 22-23 

15 !22 
I4-I5 23 

14- 15 23-25 

15- 16 23-25 

17- 20.2t) 
20-21 22-26 

18- I9 21-22 

19- 21 
I8-20 

18- i 9 | 

19- 201 



The cost of producing cotton in 1867 was extremely high. 
A cotton expert, writing for Hunt's Merchant Magazine, 
said that every item in the cost of raising cotton had greatly 
advanced — as a rule prices averaged about double those of 
i860 for draft animals, agricultural implements, building 
materials, gins, repairs, labor. Negroes lived very much 
more expensively than under slavery and cost more to 
maintain with the high price of bread stuffs and provisions. 
The writer estimated that a given amount of labor cost 
the planter twice as much as formerly. Moreover, the 



1 Hunt's Merchant Magazine, October, 1868. 

2 These figures are taken from the annual cotton statements in the October num- 
ber of Hunfs Merchant Magazine and the Commercial and Financial Chronicle 
of each year. 



3 oi] AGRICULTURE, 1867-1872 3QI 

planter was more dependent on his factor for advances to 
cultivate his crop. Greater dependence meant greater risk 
to the lender, and consequently higher interest, amounting 
to about two and one-half per cent per month in 1867. 1 

The immediate effect of the slump at the close of 1867 
tended towards retrenchment in cotton planting in 1868 
and a large planting for grains. Estimates gave it that 
about one-third or one-fourth less cotton was planted in 
1868 than in 1867. This contraction in planting, forecast- 
ing a smaller crop, together with stimulated trade in 
Europe, brought almost immediate effects in the cotton 
market in the spring of 1868, raising the price in Liver- 
pool from 7d. to 13d. during the planting season. Hence 
came a reaction on planters, who put in more cotton in late 
planting, favored by unusually good weather conditions, 2 
In amount the Georgia crop of 1868 was considerably less 
than that of the previous year (357,253 bales in 1868; 495,- 
959 bales in 1867), but higher prices, about 25 cents, during 
the marketing season, more than made up for the smaller 
crop. Moreover, the cost of production, lower wages and 
less outlay for fertilizer, was considerably less in 1868 than 
in any year since the war. For the first time since the war, 
cotton interests in Georgia enjoyed some degree of pros- 
perity — and this was the first year of the political revolu- 
tion under the process of congressional reconstruction. 

The success of 1868 stimulated more hope in the next 
year; more land was put in cotton and heavy outlay was 
made for fertilizer in the constantly diminishing labor sup- 
ply. " King Cotton, for a dethroned monarch, still exer- 
cises a decided and positive influence in the world ! " — as 

1 Hunt's Merchant Magazine, October, 1867. 

8 Savannah News, January 16, March 14, 1868; Hunt's Merchant 
Magazine, May and July, 1868. 



302 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[302 



one observer put it. 1 The result in 1869 was a cro P almost 
as large as in 1867 — 488,204 bales — which brought 25-35 
cents in the marketing season. 

1870 brought the record crop of reconstruction times — 
726,406 bales. But the price of cotton was low — 15-19% 
— and the cost of production high. So the aggregate value 
of the crop of 1870 was less than that of 1869. Tempted by 
favorable prices of the crops of 1868 and 1869, planters 
paid too high wages and made too heavy outlay for ex- 
pensive fertilizers. Hence 1870 saw no such large surplus 
accruing to the planter as the previous year brought. 2 Over- 
expansion in 1870 was followed by contraction and a better 
outcome in 1871. Less land was given over to cotton, more 
to corn and oats, less money was spent in preparing the 
ground for seed, a great decrease in the expenditure for fer- 
tilizer, favorable contracts with the negroes — all of these 
circumstances greatly diminished the cost of production, 
so that the crop of 1871 cost less than any crop since the 
war. A fair crop in bulk, 450,539 bales, bringing i8j4- 
21 }i cents, meant a favorable balance for the planter at 
the end of the year. 3 

The production of sea-island cotton never regained its 
own. The great plantations on the coast fell to pieces, and, 
when given over to the negroes in small parcels by rent or 

1 Hunt's Merchant Magazine, February, 1869. 

*Ibid., November, 1870; Commercial and Financial Chronicle, Febru- 
ary 11, September 9, 1871. 

3 Ibid., March 11, June 3, 1871 and February 24, September 7, 1872. 
Hunt's Merchant Magazine and the Commercial and Financial Chronicle 
in October of each year give cotton statements for the year. The 
cotton production in Georgia after the war was as follows : 1866 — 
255965 bales; 1867—495959 bales; 1868—357253 bales; 1869—488204 
bales; 1870 — 726406 bales; 1871 — 450539 bales. In 1859 the crop was 
700930 bales ; i860 — 477584 bales. 



303] 



AGRICULTURE, 1867-1878 



303 



sale, produced only a fraction of the valuable long-staple 
cotton raised in ante-bellum times. 1 

A comparison of cotton production in the census years 
before and after the war shows a very decided loss in the 
productivity of the largest cotton-raising counties. Take, 
for example, the ten most important staple producing coun- 
ties of the state. 2 



1859 1869 

Houston 28,852 bales 3,819 (?) 

Stewart 25,902 13,643 

Burke 23,419 14,290 

Dougherty 19,580 14,034 

Meriwether 18,159 8,230 

Troup 17,978 9,063 

Monroe 17,165 10,434 

Talbot 15,366 7,020 

Coweta 14,930 9,793 

Harris 14.906 8,163 



The same decreased production was the rule for practi- 
cally every kind of agricultural product raised in Georgia. 
Corn, rice and other food products all declined markedly 
under free labor cultivation. In 1859. corn raised in 
Georgia amounted to 30,776,296 bushels; in 1869, 17,646,- 
459 bushels. In corn as in cotton the most marked falling 
off was in the black-belt counties. Thus : 3 

1 The production of sea-island cotton in Georgia was as follows: 
1866 — 7646 bales ; 1868 — 6480 bales ; 1869 — 9225 bales : 1870 — 4934 bales ; 
1871 — 1567 bales. Hunt's Merchant Magazine, October, 1867, 1868, 1869, 
1870; Commercial and Financial Chronicle, September 9, 1871. Septem- 
ber 7, 1872. 

3 U. S. Census, i860, Agriculture, pp. 22-3 ; 1870. vol. iii, pp. 120, 126. 
The census gives the crop of the preceding year. The figures for the 
crop in Houston County for 1869 are plainly erroneous. 

9 Statistics for agricultural production in U. S. Census, i860, Agri- 
culture, pp. 22-9; 1870, vol. iii, pp. 82 et seq., 120 et seq. 



304 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [304 

Corn Produced 1859 1869 

Burke Co 703,000 bu. 203,000 bu. 

Houston 648,000 363,000 

Meriwether 552,000 200,000 

Monroe 547,ooo 241,000 

In 1869 l ess than one-half as much rice was raised in 
Georgia as in 1859 — 22,277,380 lbs. in 1869; 52,507,652 lbs. 
in 1859. The utter breakdown of the coast region was re- 
sponsible for the deterioration in rice culture as in sea-island 
cotton. The decrease in the coast counties was as follows : 1 



Rice 1859 1869 

Chatham 25,934,000 lbs. 8,808,000 lbs. 

Camden 10,330,000 2,877,000 

Mcintosh 6,421,000 4,900,000 

Glynn 4,842,000 740,000 

Liberty 2,548,000 1,219,000 



The economic upheaval in the years after the war is 
shown in the decrease in other products, as well as in cot- 
ton, rice and corn. 



1859 1869 

Value of live stock $38,372,734 $30,156,317 

wheat 2,544,913 bu. 2,127,017 bu. 

rye n5,532 " 82,549 " 

tobacco 919,318 lbs. 288,596 lbs. 

peas and beans 1,765,214 bu. 410,020 bu. 

sweet potatoes 6,508,541 " 2,621,562 " 

molasses — cane 546,749 gal. 553>i9 2 gal. 

—sorghum 103,490 " 374,^7 " 



1 The rice production of Bryan County on the coast increased in this 
decade from 1,609,000 lbs. in 1859 to 2,857,000 lbs. in 1869. 



CHAPTER XII 

Industry, Commerce, Banking 

The industrial development of Georgia belongs to the 
decades of the eighties and nineties. Although there was 
some expansion in a few lines of industry during the recon- 
struction period, the years from 1865 to 1872 were com- 
paratively unfruitful in the stimulation of manufactures. 
During the war certain industries, notably manufacturing 
of war supplies and textiles, were encouraged by the ab- 
normal demand when trade with the North was cut off. But 
this growth was temporary, for most of the new manu- 
facturing establishments called into being during the war 
and many old ones were demolished by the Sherman and 
Wilson raids in the latter part of the war. Of such changes 
as there were, some information is to be derived from the 
census returns of i860 and 1870. 1 The number of manu- 
facturing establishments increased by nearly 2,000 in this 
decade, from 1,890 to 3,836. Mere numerical increase in 
this case is no index, however, for the greatest multipli- 
cation of establishments was in carpentering, blacksmithing 
and the building trades. Increase in actual numbers means 
not so much expansion in the industry as a change in 
method by which the work was done. After emancipation 
many skilled negroes who had been smiths or carpenters or 
wheelwrights on plantations set up as independent work- 
men. This fact will account to a large extent for the seem- 



1 Statistics concerning industries are taken from the U. S. Census^ 
i860, Manufactures, pp. 80-81 ; 1870, vol. iii, pp. 388 et seq., 506-8. 
305] 305 



306 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [306 

ing increase in the number of hands employed in industry 
— 17,871 in 1870, and 11,575 m i860. 1 

The great increase in the number of flour and grist mills 
may also be evidence of specialization and division in in- 
dustry accompanying the modification of the old plantation 
regime. 

Flour and Grist Mills i860 1870 

no. hands employed 620 2,356 

no. establishments 378 1,097 

capital invested $1, 599,515 $3,103,918 

wages paid $158,688 $337,864 

value of product $4,550,007 $11,202,029 

In the textiles the manufacture of cotton gained some- 
what, and woollens to a less degree. The amount of capital 
employed in cotton mills and the value of the product in- 
creased about 50 per cent, and wages paid increased in 
amount about 25 per cent. 





Cotton goods. 2 


Woollen goods. 


i860 


1870 


i860 


1870 




33 


34 


11 


16 




2813 


2846 


383 


563 




#4i5»332 


#611,868 


#63,348 


#122,138 




2,371,207 


3,648,973 


464,420 


47 I >5 2 3 




2,126,103 


3»433»265 


242,500 


894,435 



Muscogee County, of which Columbus was the important 
center, commanding a favorable site on the fall line of the 



1 U. S. Census, i860, Manufactures, p. 81; 1870, vol. iii, p. 506. 

2 Ibid., p. 82; 1870, vol iii, p. 507. 



307] INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, BANKING 307 

Chattahoochee River, had more capital invested in manu- 
factures in 1870 than any other county, nearly two millions. 
Richmond County, in which Augusta was situated, on the 
fall line of the Savannah River, came second, with Chatham 
County third. In the value of manufacturing products and 
in wages paid, however, Muscogee was surpassed by Chat- 
ham, Richmond and Fulton. Cotton and woollen mills and 
flour and grist mills were the chief industries of Muscogee. 

Columbus was the largest center of textile manufacture 
in the state. All its important mills were destroyed by Wil- 
son's raid in 1865, among which were those of the Columbus 
Manufacturing Co. and of the Eagle Manufacturing Co. 
At a place three miles above the city the Columbus Co. re- 
built a factory with 2,500 spindles and capacity for double 
that number. Its capital stock was $250,000. In the first 
year of re-opening it made only cotton yarn. The Eagle 
Co. reorganized as the Eagle-Phoenix Co. in 1866 with a 
capital of $450,000. In 1867 its factory building was com- 
pleted with accommodations for 500 hands and 10,000 
spindles to weave both cotton and woollen goods. 1 The 
Athens Manufacturing Co. nearly doubled its capacity in 
1868, with 3,000 spindles and 75 looms, consuming 10,000 
pounds of lint cotton per week and turning out 10,000 
yards of cloth and 7,500 pounds of cotton yarn. In the 
spring of 1868 it employed 175 operatives. 2 

Next in importance to flour mills and textile manufactures 
was the lumber industry. Over 100 more saw-mills were 
in operation in 1870 than in i860. The value of the out- 
put and wages paid both increased greatly while the capital 
invested remained about the same. Lumber was the most 
important product of the coast counties. In 1870 Camden 



1 De Bow, Review, June, 1867. 

2 Atlanta Constitution, June 26, 1868. 



3 o8 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



County produced sawed lumber to the value of $489,500; 
Glynn County, $435,000; Mcintosh, $346,000; and Chat- 
ham, $328,ooo. 1 

Lumber 2 



i860 1870 

no. establishments 410 532 

wages $438,588 $667,628 

no. hands 1,871 2,976 

value of product $2,412,996 $4,044,375 

capital $1,639,217 $1,718,473 



In the decade between i860 and 1870 several industries 
other than those already mentioned grew markedly — among 
them brick and tile, rolled and cast iron, machinery, and 
tobacco in various forms, cigars, snuff and chewing tobacco. 
But the production of pig iron remained about stationary, 
and the tar and turpentine industry, so important later in 
some of the lower counties, was still insignificant with only 
four establishments employing 138 hands. 3 The rich marble 
and granite quarries of Georgia were barely touched at 
this time. The entire product of the state in 1870 in stone 
was worth $10,000 from DeKalb County; in slate, $5,550 
from Polk County; in marble, $4,000 from Pickens County. 
The mines of Lumpkin, White and Lincoln counties pro- 
duced $29,780 worth of gold quartz in that year. 4 

Of all the industries classified by the U. S. Census, sev- 
enty-one existed in Georgia in 1870, though many had only 
one establishment of its kind. In the number of establish- 
ments, flour and grist mills headed the list with 1,097. In 
1870 there were 532 saw mills, 513 blacksmith shops, and 

1 U. S. Census, 1870, vol. iii, pp. 646-8. 

2 Ibid., i860, Manufactures, p. 82 ; 1870, vol. iii, p. 508. 

3 Ibid., 1870, vol. iii, pp. 592, 604-7, 614-5, 627-9. 

4 Ibid., 1870, vol. iii, pp. 761, 772. 



3Q 9 ] INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, BANKING 309 

244 shops for making boots and shoes, 1 The returns of 
the Comptroller General of Georgia, listing the taxable 
property of the state, show that the wealth classified as 
stocks and manufactures in 1872 surpassed the amount of 
the year before the war. In 1859, the taxable wealth of 
this sort amounted to $4,428,100; in 1867 it had fallen to 
$2,579,905; it then rose steadily, with a slight slump in 
1871, until it reached $6,266,552 in 1872. 2 

Manufactures engaged but a small part of all the work- 
ers, for Georgia was overwhelmingly agricultural. In 1870 
nearly half a million persons in Georgia were engaged in 
gainful occupation, of whom 76 per cent were in agri- 
culture; 14 per cent in professional and personal occupa- 
tions, including domestic service; 4 per cent in trade and 
transportation, and 6 per cent in manufacturing, mechanical 
and mining pursuits. Of this 6 per cent, or 27,040 per- 
sons, 4,723 were carpenters or joiners, 2,846 were cotton- 
mill operatives, 2,604 tailors or seamstresses, 2,262 black- 
smiths, 1,375 shoemakers, 1,206 millers, and 1,215 saw- 
mill operatives. About 5 per cent of those engaged in 
manufacturing and mining occupations were foreign born, 
chiefly Irish and German. 3 

The labor of women and children in industry did not 
become significant in Georgia until the decade or two after 
the reconstruction period. In 1870 about 8 per cent of the 
total number employed in industry were women, and 7 per 
cent were youths. 4 Of the 1,498 women in industrial labor 
in 1870, 1,271 were employed in textile manufactures, and 
740 of the 1,295 youths were so employed. The only other 

1 U. S. Census, 1870, vol. iii, pp. 507-8. 

3 Reports of the Comptroller General for the various years. 

8 U. S. Census, vol. iii, p. 808 et seq. 

* Boys under sixteen and girls under fifteen. 



3io 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[3IO 



industries employing women laborers to any appreciable ex- 
tent were tobacco factories and shops for making articles of 
wear. Children were employed in brick yards, in building- 
material trades, in tobacco factories, saw-mills and print- 



Let us consider now the general development of the 
railway system, on which the industry and commerce of 
Georgia so closely depended. The first year and a half 
after the war was devoted to the repair of damages in 
railway track and rolling stock. The next two years 
were comparatively unprogressive, but with 1869 came an 
active movement towards further construction under the 
impetus of grants of state aid, and also conspicuous steps 
toward consolidation among some of the older roads. 
The decade between 1850 and i860 was lively in rail- 
way construction, when the mileage was more than doubled. 
All progress was checked during the war, but in the re- 
construction period, 1865-72, the mileage of railroads in- 
creased a little over 50 per cent. Of 740 miles of new 
track laid in these years, the greatest additional mileage, 
263 miles, was built in the year 1870-71, under the encour- 
agement of state aid grants. 2 The railway history of the 
reconstruction period deals, in the first place, with the old, 
well-established railroads, which continued in prosperity 
after the temporary set-back in 1865-6; secondly, with the 

1 U. S. Census, 1870, vol. iii, pp. 507-8. In 1868 the state legislature 
incorporated 8 new manufacturing companies: 17 in 1869; 18 in 1870. 

2 Poor, Railroad Manual, 1868-9, pp. 20-21 ; 1873-4, PP- xxviii-xxix. 

Railzuay mileage in Georgia 



ing shops. 1 



i860 1420 

1865 " 



1866. ..... 1502 

1867 1548 



1850 



643 mi. 



1868 
1869 
1870 
1871 
1872 



2160 " 



1652 

1845 
2108 



1575 mi. 



3 1 1 ] IND USTR Y, COMMERCE, BANKING 3 x 1 

checkered career of the state road, fearfully mismanaged 
under the Bullock government, and leased in 1870 to a 
private corporation; and in the third place with the sudden 
rise and fall of several reconstruction railroads, nourished 
on state aid and financed by Northern capitalists. 

The dominating force among Georgia railroads was the 
Central of Georgia under the progressive leadership of W. 
M. Wadley, elected president in 1866. The main line of 
the Central ran from Savannah to Macon, 190 miles, fur- 
nishing the chief outlet to the sea from the central cotton- 
belt. Branch feeding lines, the Augusta and Savannah R. 
R., from Millen on the main line of the Central to Augusta, 
and the Milledgeville and Eatonton, were leased and oper- 
ated by the Central. When the construction of the Bruns- 
wick and Albany R. R. and the Macon and Brunswick R. R. 
threatened keen competition for the carrying trade from 
the interior to the coast, the Central extended its control 
over the main feeders of its line, by securing leases of the 
Southwestern and of the Macon and Western. In 1872 
the company purchased six steamers plying between New 
York and Savannah, and so strengthened its control over 
cotton shipment to Northern ports. The Central in financial 
management continued strong and steady. Its capital stock 
before the war was $3,750,000, increased to $4,666,800 in 
the year after the war, and to an even $5,000,000 in 1871. 
To meet the heavy expenses entailed by repairs in 1865 and 
1866, bonds were issued, increasing the debt in 1866-7 to 
$786,000 from $106,267, the amount of the funded debt 
in 1858-9. The stock of the company was held mostly in 
Georgia, and of the nine directors all except one from 
Macon were Savannah business men. The bonds issued 
after the war were sold in New York. In 1858-9 Central 
stock paid 15 per cent dividend, in 1866-7 an d 1867-8, 12 
per cent, and thereafter 10 per cent. The Central with its 



312 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ 3I2 

leased property, the Macon and Western, was the best pay- 
ing railroad investment in the state. During the years of 
reconstruction its stock quotations ranged from 104 to 130, 




- Other Railroads 

Construct-ed before I860 

and its first mortgage 7 per cent bonds from 95 to 101. 
With the increase of freight rates after the war, gross earn- 
ings increased though net earnings were smaller — $818,659 
in 1868-9 as compared with $898,731 ten years earlier. 



313] INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, BANKING 3^ 

After 1870 the business of the road fell off considerably on 
account of competition of roads to the south, and the reduc- 
tion in the cotton crop. 1 

The Southwestern Railroad tapped the rich and growing 
southwestern part of the cotton-belt, running from Macon 
to Albany, 106 miles, with branches from Ft. Valley to 
Butler, where the Muscogee R. R. made connections to Co- 
lumbus, from Smithville to Eufaula, Ala., and from Cuth- 
bert to Ft. Gaines — a total of 209 miles. The Ft. Gaines 
branch, from which iron was removed during the war, was 
out of commission until repaired late in 1866. On Novem- 
ber 1, 1868, the Southwestern took over the Muscogee R. 
R., 50 miles, Butler to Columbus. Under the terms of con- 
solidation, authorized by Act of March 4, 1866, the South- 
western R. R. assumed the liabilities of the Muscogee Co., 
exchanging its stock for Southwestern at 87^. This gave 
the Southwestern three points of outlet on the Chatta- 
hoochee, at Columbus, Eufaula and Ft. Gaines. In the re- 
port of the road for the first year after the war, conditions 
appeared favorable. Stock was held mostly within the 
state. Dividends were regularly paid until August, 1865, 
when the semi-annual payment was passed because of extra 
expenses from bonds and coupons past due. This road was 
not so badly treated by invading armies as were the Cen- 
tral, the Georgia, the Macon and Western and others, and 
so was not under so great a burden for repairs in 1865. In 

1865- 6 a dividend of 4 per cent was paid, 9 per cent in 

1866- 7, an d in 1867-8 and after, 8 per cent. The Central, 
in leasing the Southwestern, guaranteed a dividend of 8 per 
cent for every 10 per cent on the Central. A comparison 

^oor, Railroad Manual, 1870-71, pp. 211-12; 1871-2, pp. 340-41, 445; 
1872-3, pp. 116-7; 1873-4, PP- 328-9; Hunfs Merchant Magazine, March, 
1870; Commercial and Financial Chronicle, July 8, December 23, 1871 ; 
January 6, 20, December 28, 1872. 



314 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [3^ 

of tables of earnings in 1865-6 with those of 1859-60 shows 
an increase in the year after the war, due, however, not to 
increased business but to the rise in freight and passenger 
tariffs. In 1865-6, the Southwestern hauled 87,250 bales 
of cotton; 137,696 bales in 1866-7; and with the plentiful 
crop of 1868, 232,343 bales. In 1866-7, when the planter 
plunged heavily into cotton to the exclusion of food crops, 
the road carried 639,538 bu. of corn. The next year, when 
the planters of the southwest relied more on their own 
products, only 149,643 bu. were carried. The annual re- 
port of the Southwestern R. R., like that of all railroads 
in the South, was a barometer of agricultural conditions. 
A full cotton crop meant heavy freight earnings, shipping 
cotton and bringing in goods, with free money for passenger 
traffic. A bad season meant little cotton to haul and con- 
sequently a slackness in goods imported and poverty not en- 
couraging to travel. 1 

The Macon and Western R. R., connected with the Cen- 
tral of Georgia and with the Southwestern at Macon, going 
northward to Atlanta, 102 miles, and operated under lease 
the branch from Barnesville to Thomaston, also the Savan- 
nah, Griffin and North Alabama, from Griffin to Newnan. 
The Macon and Western R. R. was prosperous, paying 
a dividend of 8j4 per cent in 1866-7, 8 per cent in 
1867-8, gy 2 per cent in 1868-9, an d 10 per cent thereafter. 
In May, 1869, a dividend of 33^ per cent in stock was 
declared, raising the share capital from $1,500,000 to $2,- 
000,000, with a second like dividend in January, 1870, mak- 
ing a total stock dividend equal to 66 2 /z per cent on original 
holdings. Macon interests were largely represented on the 

1 Annual Reports of the Southwestern R. R. in Hunfs Merchant 
Magazine, January, 1867, February and December, 1868, October, 1869; 
Poor, Railroad Manual, 1868-9, p. 102; 1869-70, pp. 52-3; 1870-71, pp. 
26-7; 1871-2, p. 342; 1872-3, pp. 119-20. 



315] INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, BANKING 3^ 

board of directors, with two directors from Savannah, who 
were also directors of the Central. Three of the eleven 
directors represented New York interests, and in January, 
1870, Morris K. Jesup, the New York financier who played 
a prominent part in financing Georgia railroads in this 
period, was elected to the board of directors, as were also 
Moses Taylor and C. H. Dabney, of New York. In 1871 
the Macon and Western passed over to the management of 
the Central under lease, by terms of which the stock- 
holders were put on the same footing as those of the Cen- 
tral in matter of dividends. 1 

The Georgia R. R. was one of the oldest and most con- 
servatively managed roads in the state. Its main line ex- 
tended from Augusta to Atlanta, 171 miles, with branches 
from Union Point to Athens, Barnett to Washington, and 
Camak to W arrenton. It reached the seaboard by the South 
Carolina R. R. to Charleston, and connected with the north- 
western systems to the Ohio and the Mississippi by way of 
the Western and Atlantic, Atlanta to Chattanooga, and 
with the gulf by way of the Montgomery and West Point 
and the Alabama and Florida. Like the Central, the 
Georgia Railway and Banking Co. closed up its banking 
business after the war. Heavy expenses for repairs and 
renewed equipment were mostly met from the reserve fund, 
and the bonded debt was increased only slightly. In 1866-7 
and in 1868 dividends of 6 l / 2 per cent were declared. In 
the next year the company was able to pay 8 per cent, the 
normal dividend before the war. Profits were maintained 
at the expense of shippers through increase in freight rates. 
The bulk of goods carried during the years after the war 

1 Poor, Railroad Manual, 1868-9; p. 288; 1869-70, p. 109; 1870-71, 
pp. 252-3; 1871-2, pp. 145-6; 1872-3, pp. 120-21; 1873-4, PP- 327-9, 464; 
Commercial and Financial Chronicle, June 17, 1871, July 8, December 
23, 1871, December 28, 1872. 



316 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [316 

never equaled that of the prosperous years just before the 
war. In 1859-60, the Georgia R. R. carried 219,774 bales 
of cotton. The largest amount carried during the recon- 
struction period was in 1870-71, 170,267 bales. However, 
in the year 1868-9, I A°7>3 2 6 bu. of grain were carried by 
the Georgia R. R., far in excess of the ante-bellum shipment. 
In 1871-2 net earnings fell off markedly (1870-71, $667,- 
539; 1871-2, %^2y,yyy), due, as the president explained, to 
conditions common to all Southern railroads — a want of 
return freight, a decrease in the cotton supply, and a de- 
cline in the prosperity of the South. The Georgia R. R. 
was distinctly a Georgia enterprise, with the controlling in- 
fluence in the board of directors held by Augusta men. 1 

The Atlanta and West Point R. R., managed under the 
same presidency as the Georgia R. R., extended from At- 
lanta to West Point on the Chattahoochee, 86 miles, con- 
necting with Alabama railroads to the gulf. This likewise 
was a Georgia enterprise, with stock held mostly in the 
state. Its management was conservative. It made no large 
bond issues after the war, met extra expenses from the re- 
serve, paid dividends of 4 per cent in 1865-6, 3^2 per cent in 
1866-7, and in 1867-8, 8 per cent, equaling the dividend paid 
just before the war. Net earnings were largest in 1869-70 — 
$139,058 — declining to $79,743 in 1871-2. Competition 
with state aid railroads, especially those of Alabama, was in 
part responsible for the diminished earnings of the Atlanta 
and W'est Point. The Central system, the Georgia and the 
Atlanta and West Point, all built before the war with private 
capital, were naturally vigorously opposed to the policy of 
opening and extending new lines under the stimulus of state 

^oor, Railroad Manual, 1868-9, p. 112; 1869-70, pp. 31-2; 1870-71, 
pp. 48-9; 1871-2, pp. 139-40; 1872-3, pp. 26-8; 1873-4, PP- 102-3; Hunt's 
Merchant Magazine, October, 1868, July, 1869, July, 1870; Commercial 
and Financial Chronicle, May 20, 1871, June 8, December 28, 1872. 



317] INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, BANKING ^7 

aid. Lobbies were active at the state capitol, maintained by 
these companies against the bills for railway aid. In the 
annual report of June, 1869, J. P. King, President of the 
Georgia and of the Atlanta and West Point, branded the 
policy of state aid as unjust and oppressive, in that citi- 
zens who built their own enterprises at their own expense 
were taxed to build up rivals. 1 Roads were thus built at 
the expense of the state with little regard to public needs, 
leading to waste of vast capital. 

The Atlantic and Gulf R. R. was the successor to the 
Savannah, Albany and Gulf R. R. Under the latter com- 
pany the road opening the extreme southern part of the 
state, from Savannah to Valdosta, was built and operated 
before i860. After reorganization into the Atlantic and 
Gulf Co., the road was extended to Thomasville and later 
to Bainbridge on the Flint River. A branch was built and 
opened for traffic in the fall of 1866 from Lawton to Live 
Oak, Fla., a station on the Pensacola and Georgia R. R., to 
tap the Florida cotton region. Later the South Georgia 
and Florida R. R., Thomasville to Albany, was taken over 
T>y the Atlantic and Gulf. The country traversed by the 
Atlantic and Gulf was poor and sparsely settled, the whole 
taxable property of the counties, leaving out Chatham and 
Dougherty, was not over fifteen millions, and the whole 
amount of cotton for 150 miles of the distance in 1871 was 
only 2,236 bales. Hence the road was not a paying invest- 
ment. Its hope depended on through traffic from the south- 
west cotton region of Georgia to Savannah, with prospects 
of making connections with a through route to Mobile and 

1 Net earnings in 1859-60, $209,119. In 1868 stock was quoted at 
95-100. Poor, Railroad Manual, 1868-9, pp. 195-6; 1869-70, pp. 29-30; 

1870-71, p. 101; 1871-2, pp. 218-19; 1872-3, pp. 42-3; 1873-4, P- 28; 
Hunt's Merchant Magazine, October, 1868, October, 1869, November, 

1870; Commercial and Financial Chronicle, November 18, 1871. 



318 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [318 

New Orleans by extension into Alabama. One million dol- 
lars of the stock of the company was held by the State of 
Georgia. Commissioners for the state appointed in 1872 to 
look after the interests of the state, reported strongly in 
favor of carrying out the plan of the directors to extend 
the road from Bainbridge to Pollard, Ala., where connec- 
tions could be made with Pensacola, Mobile, and New Or- 
leans. Thus, through connection between Savannah and 
Mobile could be made in 616 miles, while the distance via 
Montgomery and Macon was 705 miles. Common stock, 
to the amount of more than three and a half millions, paid 
no dividends, but a guaranteed dividend of 7 per cent was 
paid on preferred stock of about $800,000/ 

Since the state road, the Western and Atlantic, was dis- 
tinctly bound up with the political history of Georgia after 
1867, its history is treated in that section. 2 

By the close of 1872 the Atlanta and Richmond Air Line 
was completed from Atlanta to the South Carolina bound- 
ary. The plan for a through line of transportation from 
Atlanta to the northeast was promoted by grants from the 
legislature in 1856 to the Georgia Air Line, but construction 
was delayed by the war. The Atlanta and Richmond Co., 
successors to the Georgia Air Line Co., secured aid from 
the state in bond endorsement to the amount of $12,000 per 
mile within the limits of Georgia. On completion of the 
first twenty miles the road received the endorsement of the 
state to the amount of $240,000. After the work was suc- 
cessfully begun, the company was able to negotiate its first- 

1 Poor, Railroad Manual, 1868-9, PP- 3°3"4; 1869-70, pp. 378-9; 1870-71, 
pp. 215-16; 1871-2, pp. 302-3; 1872-3, pp. xliv-xlv, 365; 1873-4, P- 230; 
Hunt's Merchant Magazine, May, 1868, July, August, 1870 ; Commercial 
and Financial Chronicle, March 16, August 17, December 28, 1872; 
Report of the Comptroller General, 1869, p. 16. 

2 See Chapter IX. 



219] INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, BANKING 3^ 

mortgage securities under better terms than it could secure 
by state endorsement. Hence the road returned to the state 
the bonds bearing endorsement. 1 

In order to compete with the Central for the traffic from 
Middle Georgia to the coast, the Macon and Augusta R. R., 
connecting Macon with Warrenton, a station on the Georgia 
R. R., was completed in 1870. The Georgia R. R. and the 
South Carolina R. R., wishing to divert traffic from the port 
of Savannah to Charleston, stood sponsors for the under- 
taking by endorsing the first-mortgage bonds of the Macon 
and Augusta to the amount of $300,000. The Georgia 
R. R. alone endorsed the second-mortgage loan. Rufus B. 
Bullock acted as president of the road until his election to 
the governorship in 1868. When the track was finished in 
1870, rolling stock was furnished and the road was oper- 
ated by the Georgia R. R., though at a loss to the stock- 
holders. Though the Macon and Augusta secured from the 
legislature a promise of state endorsement of its bonds at 
$10,000 per mile, the company never actually received such 
aid. It found it could negotiate its bonds for a larger 
amount per mile than was authorized by the state. In De- 
cember, 1871, at the close of its first year, stock of the 
Macon and Augusta sold for 30-35, its bonds, endorsed by 
the Georgia R. R., were quoted at 87-91, and unendorsed 
at 71-74. At the end of 1872 stock fell to 20-25, endorsed 
bonds remaining the same, and unendorsed rose to 82-88. 
Later the road became the property of the Georgia R. R. 2 

The Macon and Brunswick R. R., 185 miles, with a ten- 
mile branch from Cochran to Hawkinsville on the Ocmulgee 

1 Report by Gov. Bullock, Commercial and Financial Chronicle, July 
22, 1871. 

2 Poor, Railroad Manual, 1868-9, p. 222; 1870-71, p. 50; 1871-2, p. 470; 
1872-3, pp. 509-10; Hunt's Merchant Magazine, July, 1870; Commercial 
and Financial Chronicle, July 22, December 9, 23, 187 1 ; December 14, 
28, 1872. 



320 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [320 

River, was completed in December, 1869, though part of 
the road was in operation in 1867 and about 50 miles was 
constructed before the war. The bonds of the company 
received state endorsement in 1866 to the amount of $10,- 
000 per mile, with an additional $3,000 later. The road 
was capitalized at $3,500,000, with a funded debt of $3,- 
750,000. Up to 1868, $400,000 endorsed bonds were is- 
sued, and by the close of 1872, $2,500,000. At the outset 
the enterprise was backed by Georgia men, with G. H. 
Hazlehurst of Macon as president (also president of the 
Macon and Augusta R. R.). In 1870, New York capital 
was introduced with Morris K. Jesup as fiscal agent as well 
as director. C. H. Dabney, J. Milbank and J. P. C. Foster 
of New York also were on the board of directors. The 
properties of the company in November, 1872, were adver- 
tised for sale under foreclosure of the second mortgage, 
and on sale the state was the purchaser, selling in 1880 to 
the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia R. R. The first 
mortgage bonds, 7 per cent endorsed, were quoted among 
active securities in the New York market in 1871 at 68-75. 1 
The Brunswick and Albany R. R. was the liveliest politi- 
cally of all the reconstruction state-aid railroads. Its career 
was inextricably associated with that of the spectacular pro- 
moter and friend of Governor Bullock, H. I. Kimball. 
Under the name of the Brunswick and Florida the company 
was organized before the war with Northern capital, and 
later, by combining with the Albany and Atlantic, chartered 
in 1866, was planned to extend from Brunswick on the 
coast, across the southern part of the state through Albany 
to the Alabama border at Eufaula, a total distance of 242 
miles. Prior to the fall of 1863, 60 miles of the road from 



1 Poor, Railroad Manual, 1868-9, P- 3*5; 1870-71, p. 415; 1871-2, p. 448; 
1872-3, p. 512; 1873-4, P- 541 ; Commercial and Financial Chronicle, 
January 7, 28, October 28, December 9, 1871 ; December 28, 1872. 



3 2i] INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, BANKING 321 

Brunswick to a point of junction with the Atlantic and Gulf 
was finished. In that year iron was removed from the 
road for use on other roads. Nothing was done toward 
restoration until 1869, when the Brunswick and Albany Co. 
was formed, consisting of the original bondholders. Capi- 
tal stock was authorized, common, $2,548,000 and pre- 
ferred, 7 per cent, $2,350,000, a total of $4,898,000, though 
apparently none was paid in. A funded debt amounting to 
$5,875,000 was authorized, of which $3,630,000 was in first 
mortgage 6 per cent gold bonds, endorsed by the state, and 
$2,350,000 in second mortgage sinking fund 7 per cent 
currency bonds. At the time of reorganization, Henry S. 
Welles of New York was President, and a little later, Chas. 
L. Frost, of New York. The directors in 1869, besides 
Welles and Frost, were Henry Clews, Treasurer and Fiscal 
Agent of the company, P. J. Avery, Jas. B. Taylor and J. 
Edwin Conant, all of New York. In December, 1870, the 
directorate changed decidedly, when H. I. Kimball became 
President. John Rice, Lewis Schofield and George Cook 
from Atlanta, friends or relatives of Kimball, took the 
place of three of the New York men. Henry Clews and H. 
S. Welles still remained as directors, with Chauncey Vib- 
bard as the third New York representative. Of the official 
staff, E. N. Kimball, brother of H. I., was secretary, Ed. 
Hulburt, one of the Bullock-Kimball friends of Western 
and Atlantic and election experience, was general superin- 
tendent, and A. S. Whiton of New York was purchasing 
agent. 

The company secured from the state legislature grant of 
bond endorsement to the amount of $15,000 per mile in 20 
mile sections, with an additional $8,000 later. $3,300,000 
of state endorsed bonds were actually executed in favor of 
the Brunswick and Albany. The political history of these 
bonds, with their repudiation by the state in 1872, is related 



322 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



elsewhere. 1 In November, 1871, the road between Bruns- 
wick and Albany was sufficiently in order for the company 
to commence the running of tri-weekly trains. By that 
time, with the change in political conditions, the flight of 
Governor Bullock and the financial eclipse of H. I. Kim- 
ball, the affairs of the road were in bad shape. Proceeds 
from bonds were exhausted, there were no signs of any real 
capital paid in, certificates of indebtedness were issued to 
the utmost limit, while the earning capacity of the road gave 
little hope of meeting either running expenses or interest on 
the enormous debt. No returns of operations or of financial 
condition were published. As early as October, 1871, seiz- 
ures began by creditors for material furnished. The com- 
pany defaulted for payment of interest on state endorsed 
bonds, due April 1, 1872, and went into the hands of a re- 
ceiver. In November, 1872, sale was advertised under local 
mechanics' lien, but postponement was secured by holders 
of state endorsed bonds, who were trying to secure their 
interests after the state repudiated its guarantee. On Octo- 
ber 15, 1873, the road was sold under foreclosure. 2 

Another one of H. I. Kimball's railroad enterprises which 
fell to pieces was the Cartersville and Van Wert, later the 
Cherokee R. R., from Cartersville on the Western and At- 
lantic to the Alabama border. In 1871, 23 of the total 45 
miles were in operation. The road was capitalized at $12,- 
500 per mile, with state endorsed bonds, dated June 1, 1871, 
to the amount of $12,500 per mile. But this, like others of 
Kimball's enterprises, lived only on the proceeds of bonds, 
and little if any of the capital was ever paid in. At the 

1 See Chapter IX. 

2 Poor, Railroad Manual, 1868-9, p. 337; 1870-71, pp. 115-16; 1871-2, 
pp. 351-2; 1872-3, pp. 555-6; 1873-4, pp. 431-2; Commercial and Finan- 
cial Chronicle, July 22, 1871 (report of Gov. Bullock) ; October 28, 
November 4, December 2, 1871 ; January 20, December 7, 28, 1872. 



323] INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, BANKING 323 

close of 1871' the company defaulted payment of interest on 
its bonds, and on behalf of the state a receiver was ap- 
pointed. Bonds to the amount of $275,000 were endorsed 
for the Cartersville and Van Wert and $300,000 more for 
the Cherokee under Gov. Bullock's administration. In 1878 
the property was sold under foreclosure for $29,500, and 
again sold a year later for $22,500/ 

The undertaking to connect Bainbridge in the extreme 
southwest corner of the state with Columbus by a road run- 
ning parallel to and a few miles back from the Chattahoo- 
chee, 120 miles, was begun by business men of Southwest 
Georgia, but taken over later under the state aid epidemic 
by Kimball. Bond endorsement from the state was se- 
cured for $12,000 per mile. In 1871, about 20 miles from 
Bainbridge to Colquitt was under construction. 2 

In general, then, we may say that, during the second 
period of reconstruction, 1868-72, the condition of the 
older established railroads in Georgia was fairly pros- 
perous. They recovered from the results of war and 
maintained a policy of progress. The beginnings of com- 
bination, the control of several lines of transportation 
by one set of interests, was conspicuous in Georgia as 
in the Northern states during this period. From 1868 to 
1 87 1, railroads were especially prosperous, though in gen- 
eral their earnings were less than in the prosperous years 
before i860. In 1871-2 all the dividend-paying roads suf- 
fered a marked decrease in earnings, due to the combined 
influence of sharp competition from new roads, fostered by 
state aid in Georgia and the adjoining states, and by the 
depression in agricultural conditions. When railroad com- 

1 Poor, Railroad Manual, 1871-2, p. 400; 1872-3, p. 556; Commercial 
and Financial Chronicle, January 20, 1872 (report of Acting-Governor 
Conley). 

2 Poor, Railroad Manual, 1870-71, p. 252; 1871-2, p. 107; 1872-3, p. 547. 



324 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [324 

panies sought credit to improve their facilities in 1868, 
prominent New York capitalists took a hand, principally 
through managing their loans. In 1868, Morris K. Jesup 
took charge of the bonds of the Atlantic and Gulf, and in 
1870 he became more heavily interested as fiscal agent and 
director of the Macon and Western and also of the Macon 
and Brunswick. Henry Clews was the banking agent of the 
Brunswick and Albany, director of the road in 1869, in- 
volved in the speculative projects of H. I. Kimball, and 
charged with collusion with Kimball and Governor Bullock 
in illegal dealings in state endorsed bonds. These years 
were active in new construction when almost 600 miles 
were added. Undue fostering of railroad enterprise by 
state aid with the political corruption connected with it 
forced the building of some lines, notably the Brunswick 
and Albany, ahead of any economic need, and so the com- 
panies failed as soon as political support was removed. 

To the railroad builder, the merchant and the manu- 
facturer, as well as to the farmer, one of the most crying 
needs was the extension of good credit facilities. State 
banks and private banking corporations, with few excep- 
tions, had collapsed with the failure of the Confederacy, 
and it was some months before any advantage came to 
Georgia from the National Banking Act. The first bank in 
Georgia to organize under this act was the Atlanta National 
in September, 1865, with a capital of $100,000. A little 
later the Georgia National was started in Atlanta with the 
same amount of capital. This bank came into the political 
arena in 1870, when H. I. Kimball bought a controlling 
amount of stock. As depository for the State of Georgia 
the bank was involved in the crooked finance of the Bullock 
regime. After a suit at law brought by the state to recover 
funds, the bank was forced to suspend. By the end of 1867 
nine national banks were in operation in Georgia, with a 



325] INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, BANKING 325 

total paid-in capital of $1,700,000; and by the end of 1872, 
two more were established. National banks were organized 
not only in the large commercial towns but in some of the 
smaller ones as well. In 1871 the little town of Newnan 
in Coweta County organized a national bank with a paid-in 
capital of $62,500, and in 1872, the First National Bank of 
Americus was established. Individual deposits in the na- 
tional banks of Georgia rose from $1,296,000 at the time 
of the first quarterly statement for Georgia in October, 
1867, to $2,089,000 in June, 1871. 1 

Nearly all banks in Georgia during the reconstruction 
period were new corporations, for none survived the war in 
sound condition except the Central R. R. and Banking Co., 
the Georgia R. R. and Banking Co., and two others. 
In 1870 the unredeemed currency of Georgia banks, issued 
before 1865, was practically worthless, with the excep- 
tion of the notes of these four banks. 2 

Many new banking and trust companies were incorpor- 
ated under state law. There were a great many private 
bankers, who also did business as cotton and stock brokers 
and commission merchants. Bank capital in 1871 amounted 
to $2,384,400, far less than the amount reached before the 
war — $13,482,198 in i860. 3 In 1877, there were in 
Georgia 39 private banks, 27 state banks, and 12 national 
banks, 4 

The hopeful impetus to trade in the first two years after 

1 Hunt's Merchant Magazine, November, 1867; De Bow, Review, 
January, 1867; Commercial and Financial Chronicle, July 15, August 
19, 1871; July 13, December 7, 1872; Reed, History of Atlanta, p. 424. 

1 Quotations in Hunt's Merchant Magazine, November, 1870. 
3 Sub-Committee on Debts and Election Laws, Ku Klux Committee, 
vol. i, p. 235. 

*Barnett, State Banking, pp. 82, 97; Report of the Comptroller Gen- 
eral, 1869, p. 18. 



326 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [o 2 6 

the war received a setback in 1867 with no revival until 
the fall of 1868. The failure of agricultural interests in 
1866 left planters still unable to meet their obligations to 
Northern creditors. In 1867 the general price level of agri- 
cultural products decreased about 10 per cent from the 
preceding year with a somewhat larger decrease in manu- 
factured goods, whereas cotton declined about 50 per cent. 
Political uncertainty in the fall of 1867 and the spring of 
1868 helped to retard material development. The success- 
ful cotton crop of 1868 immediately brought favorable re- 
actions in trade conditions. In the fall of 1868 Southern 
buyers took more merchandise in Northern markets than 
at any time since i860, with still larger purchases in the 
following spring. Another sign of good business condi- 
tions in 1868 was that the high- water mark in deposits in 
national banks was reached in September of that year, as 
is seen from the following figures : 1 

Amount of Deposits in National Banks 

1867, October $1,296,000 1870, January $1,621,000 

" April 2,493,216 

1868, February 1,950,000 June 2,441,000 

" May 2,505,021 " August 1,628,915 

" August 2,520,166 " December 1,681,000 

" September 2,854,000 

1871, February 1,881,000 

5869, February 2,482,593 June 2,089,000 

" July 2,110,000 

" September 2,172,000 

A mercantile review in New York noted that, contrary to 
expectations, a large amount of currency did not find its 
way back to the South to pay for the cotton crop — a sign 
that Southerners were buying more on credit than at any 



1 National bank statements published in Hunt's Merchant Magazine 
and the Commercial and Financial Chronicle. 



327] INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, BANKING 327 

time during the previous ten years. This showed improved 
confidence in Southern prosperity. 1 

The same review presented a keen analysis of the marked 
changes in Southern trade, owing to the economic revolu- 
tion of 1865. Before the war owners of big plantations 
purchased all supplies in large quantities either from North- 
ern dealers or from a factor in the neighborhood. After 
the war the planter no longer had hundreds of dependents. 
Freedmen in family groups purchased for their own wants. 
Hence there sprang up a multitude of small stores, many 
of which soon failed. The better established dealers en- 
larged their business to cater to this new class of customers. 
With the growth of village stores there developed more of 
a system of commercial traveling than was known before. 
" Drummers " became familiar figures in every small town. 
Another change came in the quantity and kind of goods 
taken by Southern merchants, now in larger quantity and 
greater variety, with more demand for medium-priced 
goods and less for luxuries. The altered methods of doing 
business required a larger volume of currency. Formerly 
the crops were moved by the factor, who took over the 
product of a plantation on which he had made advances 
during the season. After the war the same bulk of cotton 
was raised by many men, each of whom had his share of 
credit with the factor or merchant. Just as the agricultural 
unit diminished in size and increased in number, so did the 
credit system disintegrate. Smaller credits in greater num- 
ber by more merchants took the place of large business in 
few hands. 2 

The number and amount of mercantile failures indicate 
the trend of commercial conditions. The following figures, 

1 Hunt's Merchant Magazine, January, June, August, October, 1868; 
April, 1869. 

* Ibid., November, 1869; March, 1870. 



328 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [328 

taken from the reports of Dun, Barlow & Co., show the 
situation during the years of reconstruction : 1 

Number Amount 

1868 73 $820,000 

1869 30 577,ooo 

1870 98 1,403,000 

1871 42 964,000 



The fact that 1869 was the best business year of this 
period was largely due to the highly favorable agricultural 
season of 1868. Political revolution, while it hindered, evi- 
dently did not make economic progress impossible. 

With commercial expansion cities and towns grew rap- 
idly. Between i860 and 1870 the population of Atlanta 
more than doubled, that of Macon increased 34 per cent; 
Savannah, 26 per cent; and Augusta, 23 per cent. And in 
the smaller towns, such as Brunswick, Albany, Marietta and 
Valdosta, growth in this decade was even more noteworthy 
than in the larger cities. The migration of negroes from 
farm to town added largely to urban population, especially 
in Atlanta, Savannah, Augusta, Macon, Milledgeville, Al- 
bany and Brunswick. 2 



i860 

Savannah 22,292 

Atlanta 9,554 

Macon 8,247 

Augusta 12,493 



Population 

1870 i860 1870 

28,235 Brunswick 825 2,348 

21,789 Albany 1,618 2,101 

10,810 Marietta 2,680 4,376 

15,389 Valdosta 1,101 1,598 



From still another standard cities and towns show an in- 



1 Hunt's Merchant Magazine, March, 1870 ; Commercial and Financial 
Chronicle, February 18, 1871 ; February 10, 1872. The year 1870 was a 
bad financial year in the country at large. 

2 U. S. Census, 1870, vol. i, pp. 99 et seq. 



3 2 9J 



INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, BANKING 



329 



crease in importance during the reconstruction period. Be- 
tween 1867 and 1872 taxable property in towns and cities 
increased from $38,000,000 to $55,000,000. In Fulton 
County, in which Atlanta is situated, taxable property in- 
creased 67 per cent between 1867 and 1872; Chatham 
County (Savannah) increased 35 per cent in the years 
1867-72; Richmond County (Augusta) decreased slightly 
during reconstruction but increased 23 per cent between 
i860 and 1872; Bibb County (Macon) increased 16 per 
cent in 1867-72; Muscogee County (Columbus) decreased 
during reconstruction, but in the whole period from i860 
to 1872 increased 21 per cent; Floyd County (Rome) in 
the northwest showed a remarkable increase of 113 per 
cent in 1 867-72. 1 

In 1870 the bonded indebtedness of cities and towns in 
Georgia amounted to $14,383,31 5, the greater part of which 
was incurred before the war. In October, 1870, Savannah 
had outstanding bonds amounting to $2,318,640, most of 
which were issued before i860 to- develop railroads, the 
Southwestern, the Augusta and Savannah, and the Atlantic 
and Gulf. In 1866 funding bonds were issued, of which 
$402,800 were outstanding in 1870. Savannah 7 per cent 
bonds were quoted in the New York market in 1867 at 
66-67; in 1871 and 1872, old 7's were quoted at 85-88 
and new 7's at 83-86. Augusta bonds outstanding in 1871 
amounted to $1,355,250. In 1867 Augusta 7's were quoted 
at 60-62; in 1872 at 83-86. Columbus 7's were at 77-79 in 
1869; 70-75 in 1872. Macon 7's were quoted at 60-62 in 
1867 and at 73-76 in 1872. Atlanta 7's in 1872 were sold 
at 72-75, and Atlanta 8's at 82-85. 2 

1 Report of the Comptroller General, i860, pp. 44-9; 1867, app. ; 1872, 
PP- 35-9- City and town property, i860 $35,i39J45 



2 Hunfs Merchant Magazine, January, 1870; Commercial and Finan 



1867 
1872 



38,473,005 
55,219,519 



330 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [330 

Shipping was the main business of Savannah, the chief 
seaport of Georgia. In the spring of 1867, Savannah had 
steamship connection direct with Liverpool, with New York 
by three different lines, two with Philadelphia, one with 
Baltimore, two with Charleston, two with the coast towns 
of Florida and Georgia, and one each with Brunswick and 
Darien. Activity on the wharves in 1867 was much like 
ante-bellum times. In i860 the total value of exports from 
Savannah was nearly $18,000,000. In 1867 the exports 
amounted to $41,000,000, and in 1868, $50,000,000. In 
bulk, too, shipments from Savannah in 1867-8 compared 
favorably with the prosperous years before the war. While 



Savannah Shipping. 


1859 


1868 


1871 


To foreign ports : 










253>743 bal es. 


256,669 bales. 


461,534 bales. 




8,298 " 


6,680 -« 


2,835 " 


To coastwise ports : 








Upland cotton ........ 


198,523 " 


234*434 " 


260,549 " 




8,489 " 


5^90 " 


6,839 " 


To foreign ports — rice . . . 


6,836 casks. 






To coastwise ports — rice . . 


31,294 " 


4,291 casks. 




To foreign ports — lumber. 


29,384,315 feet. 


22,844,387 feet. 




To coastwise ports — lumber 


9>543>669 " 


9,152,000 " 





shipping business progressed favorably, the wealth invested 
in shipping in Georgia did not recover the position it held 
before i860. The taxable value of property in shipping in 
1859 was $631,000 and only $200,000 in 1871. Nor did 
the years between 1865 and 1871 show any advance in this 
kind of investment. Activity in shipping brought pros- 
perity in all lines of business in Savannah. Rents were high 
and property values rose steadily. The appraised value of 

cial Chronicle, January 21, May 20, 1871 ; January 6, March 9, June 15, 
August 10, December 14, 1872; Atlanta Constitution, July 17, Septem- 
ber 17, December 12, 1868. 
1 Advertisements in Savannah newspapers ; Lee and Agnew, His- 



331] INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, BANKING 

real estate in i860 was $10,000,000; about the same in 
1866; but more than $15,000,000 in 1871. 1 

Before the war Macon was the railroad center of the 
state, with lines radiating north, east, south and west. As 
the center of the cotton-belt it was one of the most im- 
portant interior cotton markets of the South. One of the 
first needs towards financial recovery after the war was the 
establishment of banks. Late in 1865 the First National 
Bank of Macon was organized. In 1869 and the years fol- 
lowing a number of other banks were organized under state 
laws, and also several building and loan associations. 1 

With the growing importance of mercantile business 
after the war and the opening of the Richmond Air Line, 
Atlanta soon became the chief business center of the state. 
Whereas the years after the war in Savannah, Macon and 
Augusta were first of all a period of recovery, Atlanta en- 
tered upon a career of prosperity which she had never 
known before. In 1868 and 1869 the temporary rude struc- 
tures which were erected after the devastation by Sherman's 
army gave place to substantial business buildings, and pros- 
perity allowed citizens to build residences on a scale of lux- 
ury never before known in Atlanta. New enterprises of all 
sorts were started, capital flowed in, banks afforded ready 
financial facilities in this process of expansion, and with 
growing business interests many distinguished professional 
men moved from smaller and older towns to the promising 
city of the Piedmont region. The removal of the capital 
from Milledgeville to Atlanta in 1868 was another factor 
which influenced its growth. With no special advantages 
of water power, Atlanta had few manufactures before the 

torical Record of the City of Savannah, pp. 139-40, 150; Commercial 
and Financial Chronicle, September 9, 1871 ; Sub-Committee on Debts 
and Election Laws, Ku Klux Committee, vol. i, p. 148. 

1 Butler, Macon and Central Georgia, passim. 



332 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [332 

war. Most of such establishments, foundries, saw-mills, 
flouring-mills, were destroyed in 1864, so the field was open 
to new enterprises. After 1865 there were a number of 
planing and rolling mills and iron foundries, but practi- 
cally no textile factories. The period of cotton manufacture 
in Atlanta did not begin until the next decade. In 1866 
the Chamber of Commerce, which had suspended during 
the war, reorganized, and at the close of 1872 the Atlanta 
Manufacturers' Association was formed. Mercantile busi- 
ness was decidedly more extensive in Atlanta than manu- 
facturing. The advertising columns of newspapers were 
full of announcements of grain and commission merchants, 
wholesale and retail. With good railroad facilities Atlanta 
was important as a distributing center, receiving grain and 
meat from the West and dry-goods and manufactured ar- 
ticles from the East for distribution further South. One of 
the chroniclers of Atlanta gives the following account of 
the city in the time of reconstruction : 1 

By 1870, Atlanta, whatever may be said of Georgia, was 
pretty generally " reconstructed " ; Atlanta had reason to feel 
rather kindly toward ^constructionists, for the city was their 
headquarters during the period of military rule, and after the 
civil machinery was in motion the capital of the state was lo- 
cated permanently in Atlanta. The beginning of the decade 
(1870-1880) witnessed unprecedented activity in Atlanta. The 
town was booming, to borrow a westernism, and real estate 
in desirable localities was held at fancy figures and transfers 
made on that basis. 

The following was a comment from one of Atlanta's 
neighbors : 



1 Martin, Atlanta and its Builders, vol. ii, p. 69. See also Reed, 
History of Atlanta. 



333] 



INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, BANKING 



333 



Atlanta is certainly a fast place in every sense of the word, 
and our friends in Atlanta are a fast people. They live fast, 
and they die fast. They make money fast, and they spend 
it fast. They build houses fast, and they burn them down fast. 
. . . They have the largest public meetings, and the most of 
them, and they pass the most resolutions of any people, ancient 
or modern- To a stranger, the whole city seems to be running 
on wheels, and all of the inhabitants continually blowing off 
steam. In short, everything and everybody in and about the 
place seems to be moving very fast except Mayor Williams, 
who, the last we heard from him, was steadfast and immovable. 1 

Thus, during the years of reconstruction, while agricul- 
ture was struggling to get on its feet again and stumbling 
along, mercantile business and city interests shot ahead. 
With the growth of trade came a marked increase in urban 
population and a shifting of the town center from Central 
and Eastern Georgia to the Piedmont region, with the re- 
markable rocket-like rise of Atlanta, destined to be the 
commercial capital of the Southeast. The building of rail- 
roads and commercial expansion, as well as political in- 
fluence, all helped to develop Atlanta as a center of eco- 
nomic importance. 



1 Milled geville Federal Union, February 12, 1867. 



CHAPTER XIII 



Schools, Churches, Courts 

Educational opportunities for Georgia children, except 
those whose parents were rich enough to pay for instruc- 
tion in private schools and academies, were very limited 
during the period of reconstruction. Colored children were 
cared for in schools established by the Freedmen's Bureau 
and various Northern missionary societies, but white chil- 
dren had almost no opportunity for free instruction after 
the poor-school system broke down during the war, until 
the new public school system was put in operation in 1873. 1 
Most of the funds set aside by the state for general edu- 
cation had vanished. Its bank stock was worthless and the 
Western and Atlantic R. R. under reconstruction manage- 
ment failed to turn into the treasury the amount of one 
hundred thousand dollars, which the Act of December 11, 
1858, had set aside for the Poor School Fund. The only 
source of income for education was from state bonds issued 
to replace those redeemed after 1859. 2 

In 1870, opportunities for education in Georgia had not 
caught up with the position they had reached before the war. 
There were fewer schools and fewer pupils in 1870 than in 
i860. At the time that the public school system was started 
more than half of the population of Georgia was illiterate, 

1 For the Poor School System, see supra, p. 119. 
s Report of the Comptroller General, 1865, p. 23. Before the war the 
Educational Fund was about $150,000 annually. 

334 [334 



335] SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, COURTS 335 

and the inability to read and write was by no means con- 
fined to negroes. Among the whites 125,000 over ten years 
of age were illiterate and about half of this number were 
over twenty-one. Of blacks and whites together there 
were 275,000 illiterate grown men and women to whom 
the opportunities of the new free schools would be of no 
avail. Through the greater part of the black belt the pro- 
portion of illiterates to total population was over 60 per 
cent ; on the coast and in the upper cotton-belt and in North- 
east Georgia, between 40 and 60 per cent ; and in the North- 
west and the pine barrens, 20 to 40 per cent. 1 

The law for a common school system, passed in 1866 
under Governor Jenkins's administration, never went into 
effect. The constitution of 1868 provided in general terms 
for a public school system, leaving to the legislature the 
task of organizing it in detail. 2 The first session of the re- 
construction legislature postponed action, so the first public 
school law which went into effect was enacted in October, 
1870, amended, January 19, 1872. The main provisions of 
the scheme for general education, worked out in the Act of 
October 13, 1870, were largely the result of recommenda- 
tions made by a committee of the Georgia Teachers' Asso- 
ciation, which met in Atlanta in August, 1869. The com- 
mittee was a representative group, made up of Gustavus J. 
Orr of Emory College as chairman, Bernard Mallon, Sup- 
erintendent of Public Schools in Savannah and later in 
Atlanta, John M. Bonnell, President of Wesleyan, Martin 
V. Calvin of Augusta, David M. Lewis, President of the 
North Georgia Agricultural College and former State 
Superintendent of Schools. 3 General J. R. Lewis was the 

1 U. S. Census, 1870, vol. i, pp. 396-7, and map, pp. 392-3- 

2 Constitution, 1868, Article VI. System of Education, " free to 
all children of the state." 

8 Stevens and Wright, Georgia, Historical and Industrial, pp. 386-7. 



336 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [336 

first State School Commissioner, appointed by Governor 
Bullock; he was followed by G. J. Orr under Democratic 
appointment. 

By the Act of 1870, the machinery of the school system 
was more elaborate than in the plan formulated in 1866. 
The administrative head of the state schools was a State 
School Commissioner, appointed by the governor with the 
approval of the senate, and behind him was the State Board 
of Education, consisting of the commissioner with the gov- 
ernor, attorney-general, secretary of state, and comptroller- 
general. This board held and expended the educational 
fund, prescribed text-books, and acted as a court of appeal 
from the decisions of the commissioner. Each county con- 
stituted an educational district, with a board of education 
elected by the voters of the county, and a county commis- 
sioner of education, chosen by the board. Sub^districts of 
the county were organized, each with three school directors, 
or trustees, likewise elected by the voters of the district to 
act as a local board of education. As a school fund the 
legislature set aside all income from the poll tax, special 
taxes on shows, exhibitions, and the sale of liquors, one- 
half of the earnings of the state road, and all educational 
funds of the state not belonging to the state university. This 
fund was to be apportioned among the several counties in 
proportion to the number of children of school age, six to 
twenty-one years. One very important provision of the 
School Act was the section calling for separate schools for 
whites and blacks, but equal facilities for both. 1 

In August, 1872, the Democratic legislature enacted a 
new school law to supersede earlier ones. In general plan 
it followed the Act of 1870, except that it abolished the 
elective principle for county boards, substituting choice by 



1 Acts of the General Assembly, 1870, pp. 49-60. 



337] SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, COURTS 337 

the grand jury of each county from among the freeholders 
of the county. The school age limit was lowered from 
twenty-one to eighteen, with the exception of Confederate 
soldiers under thirty. The second law, again enforcing the 
principle of separate schools for whites and blacks, was 
less emphatic in requiring equal facilities for the two 
races. The same facilities, " as far as practicable were 
the words of the law of 1872. 1 

While the machinery for a state school system was in 
readiness in 1870, no funds were available and it was not 
until 1873, when the Democratic legislature brought some 
order out of the chaotic treasury, that public schools were 
actually put in general operation. In some counties schools 
were started in 1871, but the teachers were not paid, ex- 
cept where patrons advanced the pay which the state later 
made good. Though the comptroller general reported that 
nearly $500,000 was due to the education fund from poll 
tax, tax on liquors, shows, etc., for 1868-72, most of the 
amount had been diverted to other purposes by the legis- 
lature. In 1873, with a fund of $174,000 available from 
the state and $250,000 from county appropriations, the pub- 
lic school system was put in operation. In 1874, the com- 
missioner reported that there were 1,379 schools for whites, 
356 for colored children, with an attendance of 58,499 
whites and 17,658 colored. In addition to the free state 
schools, there were schools maintained for colored children 
by charitable associations and also free school systems es- 
tablished under special laws in the counties of Bibb, Chat- 
ham, Richmond, Glynn, and in the cities, Atlanta and Co- 
lumbus. 2 

1 Acts of the General Assembly, 1872, pp. 64-75. Approved, August 
23. 

2 Report of the State School Commissioner, 1872, 1873, 1874; Stevens 
and Wright, op. ext., p. 389. 



338 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [338 

Savannah was the first city in Georgia to establish a local 
public school system. Started in the first year after the 
war with 520 pupils enrolled, the schools were enlarged 
each year until in 1870 there were 1,754 pupils enrolled. 
The estimated number of white children of school age, from 
six to eighteen years, in Savannah in 1870 was 3,200, of 
whom 2,400 were in the public schools. Of 2,400 colored 
children of school age, 900 were in the public schools. Be- 
sides 20 schools in Savannah, the Chatham County School 
Board maintained 4 schools in the county, at White Bluff, 
Ogeechee Canal, Isle of Hope and Cherokee Hill. In Savan- 
nah the Catholics carried on a number of schools, having 
about 700 pupils enrolled in 1869. In the next year these 
Catholic schools combined with the public school system 
under agreement that Catholic teachers should be preferred 
in Catholic schools and that the same text-books should be 
used except in books on history, which should be the ones 
commonly used in Catholic schools. 1 

The first steps toward a public school system in Atlanta 
were taken in 1869 and in the next year free schools were 
opened. 2 In Macon and Bibb County the public school sys- 
tem was organized in 1869 by a board of school commis- 
sioners acting with the court of ordinary. 3 

The University of Georgia at Athens felt the heavy hand 
of the military power upon it in 1867 because of the com- 
mencement speech of a hot-headed young student. For his 
junior oration, Albert Cox of La Grange chose for his sub- 
ject, "The Vital Principle of Nations", making his address 
the vehicle for an attack on Republican reconstruction in 
general and on ex-Governor Brown in particular, whom he 

1 Report of the Savannah Board of Education, 1869-72. 

2 Reed, History of Atlanta, p. 334. 

3 Macon Telegraph, January 12, 1869. 



339] SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, COURTS ^9 

did not name, but looked at scornfully as Brown sat on the 
platform with the trustees. The audience was clearly with 
the speaker, giving encouragement by enthusiastic applause. 
The board of trustees tried to repudiate responsibility for 
the young speaker by a resolution " that it re-affirmed its 
conviction of the importance of that law of the University 
by which party political subjects are excluded from the 
speeches of students at commencement ". But even then, as 
a result of Cox's speech, General Pope issued an order clos- 
ing the university and withholding the payment of $8,000 
due from the state. The Chancellor of the university se- 
cured from General Pope a revocation of the first order, but 
it was only after much correspondence and intercession with 
President Johnson and General Grant that the appropria- 
tion was restored. In 1868 the university gained in attend- 
ance 48 per cent over the preceding year, with 354 students 
enrolled, of whom 132 were in the high-school department. 
Many of those in the preparatory grades were soldiers, 
whose tuition was paid by the state. In 1868, it is interest- 
ing to note, the trustees established a chair of Political 
Science and History, to which they called Alex. H. Ste- 
phens. He declined the appointment, however, on account 
of ill health. 1 

Emory College, a Methodist institution at Oxford, closed 
its doors during the war when its endowment was swept 
away. Under the efforts of Bishop Pierce of the M. E. 
Church, South, the college was re-opened after the war, 
helped by payment from the state for the tuition of disabled 
soldiers. The college still struggled along in a hand-to- 
mouth existence until the Methodist bishop led a move- 
ment in 1867 to form a sustaining board of five hundred, 



1 Hull, History of the University of Georgia, pp. 78-80; Report of the 
Chancellor, Senate Journal, 1868, pp. 238 et seq. 



340 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [340 

each contributing $20 a year toward the maintenance of 
Emory. 1 

Mercer University, the most important Baptist college in 
Georgia, suffered like most educational institutions during 
the war. By 1862 it had practically no students, for they 
had all enlisted, so the college suspended. In December, 
1865, the trustees held a meeting and decided to re-open 
the school with three teachers, all that the limited resources 
of the college could afford. In 1871, Mercer was moved 
from Penfield to Macon, on the agreement by the city of 
Macon to grant seven acres of land and $125,000 in bonds. 
Baptist schools for girls, which were forced to close during 
the war, again opened when peace was restored. Among 
these was the Monroe Female College at Forsyth and the 
Southern Female College at La Grange, also schools at 
Madison, Gainesville and Rome. 2 

Under the educational department of the Freedmen's 
Bureau, the work started in 1865 towards educating the 
negroes continued. Northern aid societies, especially the 
American Missionary Society and the Freedmen's Union 
Commission, co-operated with the Freedmen's Bureau in 
establishing and maintaining schools, the societies furnish- 
ing teachers and, to some extent, buildings, while the Bu- 
reau built or rented houses for school purposes. In the 
fall of 1865 colored schools were opened in the principal 
cities. During the year ending July, 1867, eighty teachers 
were maintained and $42,000 was spent for freedmen's 
schools. Sixty-five teachers were supported by the Amer- 
ican Missionary Society, eight by the New England Branch 
of the Freedmen's Union Commission, and seven by the 
Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Church. The 



1 Smith, Life of Bishop Pierce, pp. 496, 503. 

12 History of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia, pp. 241, 362. 



341 ] SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, COURTS 34! 

next year one hundred and twenty-three teachers were at 
work in Georgia and $50,000 was spent for colored schools 
by various aid societies. Up to 1868, the Freedmen's 
Bureau had expended for school purposes in Georgia about 
$100,000. The largest number of pupils during any one 
month was 13,000, and in the first three years it was esti- 
mated that 30,000 colored children had learned to read, 
many had a fair knowledge of arithmetic and geography, 
some studied grammar and United States history, and a 
few began Latin and algebra. The New Jersey and Penn- 
sylvania Branches of the Union Commission, in addition to 
work for the freedmen, erected two houses in Atlanta and 
for two years supported four teachers exclusively for white 
children. In Macon, too, they supported a teacher for 
white children, besides furnishing a large part of their 
clothes and books. 1 Storrs' School in Atlanta was started 
in 1866 by the American Missionary Society, using one of 
the colored Methodist churches until a building was pro- 
vided by the Freedmen's Bureau. 2 

In Savannah the Catholics had a school of sixty colored 
pupils taught by the Sisters of St. Joseph, a French order 
for African missions. The old " Bryan Slave Mart " in 
Savannah was turned into a school, used by the colored 
education committee and by ten colored teachers under the 
patronage of the American Missionary Society. The most 
prosperous colored people had the advantage of a private 
school taught by colored men, quite a respectable establish- 
ment with about 120 pupils in 1870. In Augusta most of 
the colored schools were under the Baptist Home Mission 

1 Report of E. A. Ware, Superintendent of Education for Georgia,, 
Freedmen's Bureau, in Senate Journal, 1868, pp. 78-9; also reports of 
the Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau in the Report of the 
Secretary of War. 

2 Reed, History of Atlanta, p. 324. 



342 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [342 

Society. The Richmond County school commissioners sup- 
ported a school for colored children, employing for it one 
of the teachers of the American Missionary Society. 1 

Facilities for the education of the freedmen were not 
limited to primary and grammar schools. One of the fore- 
most institutions for advanced education for the blacks, At- 
lanta University, was organized in October, 1867. The 
first building was erected in 1869, and in that year the at- 
tendance was sixty-two men and twenty-seven women. 
Gifts toward the work came from Northern friends of 
negro education. 2 About the same time was the beginning 
of Clark University in Atlanta under Methodist manage- 
ment, opened in 1869 by Rev. J. W. Lee and his wife as a 
primary school in Clark Chapel. 3 

The latter part of the reconstruction period marked great 
progress in education in Georgia, especially in the widening 
opportunities for negroes and in the establishment of a 
public school system. For the former, the friends of re- 
construction were almost entirely responsible and certainly, 
without liberal aid from the North, the negro would not 
have fared so well in educational facilities. But for the 
public school system the reconstruction government deserves 
only part credit. In 1866, a common school system for the 
whites was outlined by the legislature to go into effect in 
1868. As far as legal enactment is concerned, credit is due 
to the reconstruction party in the legislature of 1870, but 
after showing respect for common school education by put- 
ting the law on the statute books, the Republicans squan- 
dered the resources of the state until there was nothing left 
of their own school appropriations to carry out the work 

1 Alvord, Letters from the South, January, 1870. 

2 Reed, op. cit., pp. 351 et seq. 
* Ibid., p. 371. 



343] SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, COURTS 343 

of education. Putting the law into effect was left to the 
Democratic administration of 1872. Had the Democrats 
been entirely hostile to the law they would have had full 
opportunity to repeal or modify it. Moreover, Georgia's 
public school law was not obnoxious to the white people, as 
was the law in some other states, for there was no attempt 
to enforce joint instruction of whites and blacks. 

The slavery issue and war brought disruption in church 
organization North and South as well as political disunion. 
Hence, reconstruction was a problem for churches as for 
civil government in 1865. 

The Episcopal Church, having an established ritual, was 
subjected to military discipline in some places before its 
services conformed to what was deemed the practice of 
loyalty. The military commander ordered that the prayer 
" For the President of the United States and All Others in 
Authority " be restored in the church service. In Savan- 
nah, Christ Church was closed because the assistant rector, 
then officiating, refused to use the prayer in the absence of 
instructions from the bishop or the rector. Later, when he 
had taken the amnesty oath and promised to use the prayer 
as directed, he was permitted to re-open the church for ser- 
vice. 1 Bishop Elliott, of the diocese of Georgia, did not 
follow the action of Bishop Wilmer, of Alabama, in with- 
standing the command to restore the prayer and suffering 
the churches in the state to be closed in consequence. In 
yielding to the demand, he is reported to have said that he 
knew of no one more in need of divine grace than the 
President and others in authority in the United States. 
There was some question whether the Episcopal Church in 
the Southern states should hold to its separate organization 
or go back into the general organization of the United 



1 Savannah Herald, April 24, 1865. 



344 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



[344 



States. The dioceses of Virginia and South Carolina fa- 
vored the continuance of the Southern organization, but 
Georgia inclined to reunion under proper safeguard of her 
dignity. As Bishop Elliott said to a Northern bishop, 
" Silence, if you please, but not one word of censure 
Moreover, the Episcopal Church in the South wished the as- 
surance that certain of its acts, especially the consecration 
of the bishop of Alabama and the organization of the dio- 
cese of Arkansas, acted upon after separation from the 
church in the North, should be accepted by the church as 
a whole. At a meeting held in Augusta in November, 1865, 
the House of Bishops and Deputies of the Episcopal Church 
in the Confederate States decided upon reunion with the 
Church in the United States. 1 

In the other great churches in which division came because 
of slavery or war, reunion did not take place. The Metho- 
dist, Baptist and Presbyterian churches all maintained their 
separate Southern organizations. The Georgia Baptist As- 
sociation in 1865 passed the following resolution: "That 
from all we can learn of the light in which Northern and 
Southern Baptists look upon each other, any attempt on 
their part or ours, towards united effort, at this time, would 
be productive of trouble and confusion, and not of good." 2 
Churches everywhere except in growing towns suffered 
serious difficulty in maintaining their buildings and paying 
their pastors in the hard times just after the war. The dis- 
organization of war times scattered many organizations, 
and in 1865 there were small resources for gathering forces 
together. The Baptists reported that in certain sections 
there were no church services held because the people were 

1 Macon Journal and Messenger, December i, 1865 ; New York Times, 
November 19, 1865. 

2 History of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia, p. 240. 



345] 



SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, COURTS 



345 



too poor to pay a preacher. In Northeast Georgia there 
was no preacher in the district above Athens, and in North- 
west Georgia one minister supplied six churches, with con- 
ditions only a trifle less serious in the middle and south- 
western parts of the state. On the coast many church 
buildings had been burned and not restored, congregations 
were scattered with no pastors to bring them together. Still, 
with all these hardships the Baptists were able to increase 
their membership and the number of their churches. Be- 
tween 1868 and 1872 the number of churches increased 
from 1,218 to 1,973 an d the number of members from 115,- 
198 to 146,407. In the decade between i860 and 1870 the 
church property held by the Baptists in Georgia increased 
from about $700,000 to over a million. The Methodist 
Church South likewise grew rapidly in these years. More 
than two hundred new church organizations were estab- 
lished and Methodist property increased from $800,000 to 
a million. Presbyterians were less numerous than Baptists 
or Methodists and their growth was comparatively slight, 
as was that of the Episcopalians and other denominations. 1 
Emancipation produced a decided change in the negro 
membership of Methodist and Baptist churches. As slaves, 
negroes worshipped in churches with their white masters or 
had services of their own on the plantations. However, 
before the war separate churches for negroes were not 
unknown, especially in the larger towns. In 1865, as soon 
as the negroes were free, they began organizing churches 
of their own, assisted by white people, their former masters, 
in many instances, and helped largely by Northern missions. 2 

1 Riley, History of the Baptists in the Southern States East of the 
Mississippi, pp. 319-26; History of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia, 
pp. 239 et seq.; Smith, Life of Bishop Pierce; U. S. Census, 1870, 
vol. i, pp. 506-7. 

2 History of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia, p. 241. 



346 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [346 

The colored Methodists went over in large numbers to 
the African Methodist Church, which established its first 
mission in Georgia after the fall of Savannah in December, 
1864. In 1865, African Methodist churches were estab- 
lished in Macon, Atlanta, Columbus and Augusta, and in 
the next year work was pushed into the smaller towns and 
country districts. Henry M. Turner, one of the leading 
negro politicians during the reconstruction period, who 
came South as chaplain of a negro regiment of the U. S. 
Army, was an active organizer of the African M. E. Church 
before he became an organizer of Loyal Leagues and Re- 
publican meetings. 1 In fact, mission work among the ne- 
groes was not infrequently a stepping-stone to political 
leadership and public office. 

In Atlanta, with the influx of Northerners and rapidly 
increasing prosperity, churches shared in the general 
growth. Between 1867 and 1872 all denominations were 
active in building. Most of the churches which had been 
destroyed by Sherman's army were rebuilt, and new societies 
were organized. During the military period the Episcopal 
church, of which General Meade was an active mem- 
ber, received a fund of $5,000 raised by General Meade 
among his friends in Philadelphia. As an accompaniment 
of reconstruction the Methodist Episcopal Church entered 
the field in Atlanta, starting a church for its Northern 
members in 1867. Negro churches, Baptist and Methodist, 
likewise appeared. The number of Jews in Atlanta, com- 
ing in with the re-opening of trade in 1865, was great 
enough to lead to the organization in 1866 of the Hebrew 
Benevolent Congregation, which built its first synagogue in 

i875- 2 



Raines, African Methodism in the South, pp. 5-16; Smith, op. cit., 
pp. 440, 456, 491. 

2 Reed, History of Atlanta, pp. 377-97. 



347] SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, COURTS 347 

Newspapers of good standing before the war took the 
conservative, anti-reconstruction side in 1867. The most 
significant of the daily papers were the Macon Telegraph, 
Augusta Chronicle, Savannah News, Atlanta Intelligencer 
and Columbus Enquirer. It was an important part of re- 
construction policy to foster a favorable public opinion 
through the press. This was done in various ways. Under 
military rule newspapers were severely dealt with for pub- 
lishing anti-reconstruction editorials. 1 But a more effective 
means of securing favorable press opinion was through 
patronage, not a small instrument with the publication of 
multitudinous official proclamations and notices. Where 
established papers could not be won over, the Republicans 
established papers of their own, kept alive by patronage 
from the state more than by earnings from subscribers or 
commercial advertisements. The first and most important 
paper managed in the interest of the Federal government 
was the Savannah Republican, seized under General Sher- 
man's order in December, 1864. John E. Hayes, corres- 
pondent of the New York Tribune following Sherman's 
army, took possession of the Republican and continued to 
publish it until his death in 1868. 2 Under the editorship of 
Hayes it was by far the most able and influential Republican 
paper in the state, maintaining a fair and liberal position. 
In Atlanta the Republicans got control of the New Era. In 
1866, the editor, Samuel Bard, was a strong advocate of 
President Johnson's policy. Early in 1867 he preached a 
" wait and see " doctrine. He did wait, and when he saw 
the chance of patronage from the military government come 
his way, the New Era became ardently reconstructionist. 

1 General Pope's newspaper order, Report of the Secretary of War, 
1867-8, vol. i, pp. 325-6. 

2 Lee and Agnew, Historical Record of the City of Savannah, pp. 
189 et seq. 



348 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [348 

In 1870, when disruption in the camp of the Republicans 
boded danger for Bullock, and Bard was among the disaf- 
fected, the paper was purchased by a group of Bullock's 
friends, of whom H. I. Kimball was one, to be published in 
his interest. The Republicans also controlled the Augusta 
Republican, the Griffin Union and the Macon American 
Union. The last two were edited by a notorious and trouble- 
some carpet-bagger and agitator among the negroes, J. 
Clarke Swayze. 

The Macon papers, the Telegraph and the Journal and 
Messenger, during the period after the war gave fullest ac- 
counts of agriculture and labor conditions through regular 
correspondents from various parts of the planting section. 
For political news the most useful were the Augusta and the 
Atlanta papers, the Chronicle and Sentinel and the Consti- 
tutionalist in Augusta, and the Intelligencer and the New 
Era in Atlanta. After 1868, the Atlanta Constitution, 
founded in that year, became the leading representative of 
Democratic political opinion, virulently hostile to the Bul- 
lock administration and particularly bitter against ex-Gov- 
ernor Brown. 

The Southern Cultivator, published first in Sparta, then 
in Athens and later in Atlanta, was a well-edited agricul- 
tural weekly, giving special attention to reports of crops and 
labor conditions from all parts of the state. Several papers 
conducted especially for negroes appeared after 1867, most 
of which were short-lived. Representative of this class 
was the Freedman's Standard, a weekly paper published in 
Savannah by James M. Sims, a negro. 1 

In the decade 1850-60 there was very rapid growth in 
the number and circulation of newspapers of all sorts, daily 
and weekly, in Georgia, but in the next ten years there was 



1 Milled geville Union, February 25, 1868. 



349] SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, COURTS 349 

little advance. In 1870 there were five more newspapers 
published in the state, but the total circulation was some 
thirty thousand less than in i860. 1 

In the decade between i860 and 1870 there was consid- 
erable shifting in the population, a movement of the blacks 
away from some of the white counties of the Northwest, 
from the pine barrens in the Southeast and from the mar- 
ginal counties in the upper cotton-belt to the richer agri- 
cultural counties of Southwest and Central Georgia. In 
the largest cotton-producing counties, Dougherty, Lee, 
Houston, Sumter and Burke, there was a marked increase 
in the number of negroes and in most of them a decrease 
in the white population, as the following figures give evi- 
dence : 2 





Whites. 


Blacks. 


Per cent blacks. 


1870 


i860 


1870 


i860 


1870 


i860 




2093 


2207 


9424 


6088 


82 


73 




1924 


2242 


7643 


4954 


79 


68 




5071 


4828 


15332 


10783 


75 


69 




4243 


5 OI 3 


13436 


12152 


76 


70 




5920 


4536 


10639 


4892 


64 


5i 



The general process of change resulted in the black 
counties becoming blacker and the white counties whiter. 
With few exceptions all the counties in which the negro 
population decreased between i860 and 1870 were white 
counties. It is notable that the black counties which had 



1 U. S. Census, 1870, vol. i, pp. 482-3 ; Avery, History of the Statj of 
Georgia, pp. 609-23. 

2 U. S. Census, 1870, vol. i, pp. 20-22. 



35° 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



fewer blacks in 1870 were localized in two groups, the 
first, along the coast, including Liberty, Mcintosh, and 
Camden, where thorough demoralization followed upon the 
breakdown of the rice plantations; and the other, in the 
upper part of the cotton belt, consisting of Elbert, Lincoln, 
Wilkes, Greene, and Hancock. In this older, more worn-out 
section of cotton land it was unprofitable to cultivate large 
plantations with free labor. A reduction in acreage and 
more intensive cultivation became the rule in that section. 1 
Wages were lower than in the richer, newer southwest 
counties, and many negroes migrated to the more profitable 
fields. The Ku Klux disturbances in these counties of the 
upper cotton-belt may have had some part in encouraging 
the migration of the blacks. 

With the freer opportunities that came to the blacks after 
emancipation, a great many found occupation in cities or 
else on small farms near large towns. With the importance 
of Atlanta as a political center under the reconstruction 
government the capital became a haven of joy to the black 
brethren. Census statistics show that there were 8,000 
more negroes in Atlanta in 1870 than in i860, but most of 
this increase was in the five years after the war. The fol- 
lowing figures give evidence of the migration of negroes 
townward after emancipation : 2 

Black Population 





1870 


i860 




13,068 


8,417 




9,929 


1,939 




6,431 


4,049 




5,183 


2,851 



Chatham Co. 
Fulton Co. . . 
Richmond Co 
Bibb Co 



1870 


i860 


24,518 


15,532 


15,282 


2,986 


12,565 


8,879 


11,424 


6,831 



1 Dickson, System of Farming. Supra, chapter xi. 

2 U. S. Census, 1870, vol. i, pp. 20-22, 99 et seq. 



35i] 



SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, COURTS 



351 



Towns of secondary importance, like Milledgeville, Al- 
bany, Brunswick, and Valdosta, as well as the larger cities, 
increased rapidly in negro population. 

Though Georgia took active measures in 1866 to encour- 
age the immigration of foreigners and in 1869 appointed a 
Foreign Commissioner of Immigration, the foreign popu- 
lation of the state in 1870 was slightly less than ten years 
earlier. In Savannah, Augusta and Columbus there were 
fewer foreigners than in i860. Atlanta was the only city to 
which foreigners in any numbers came after the war, though 
in Macon and the vicinity there was a small number of Ger- 
man immigrants, and of Irish in Augusta, Columbus and 
Macon. In 1867 the U. S. Commissioner of Immigration 
reported that out of a total of 228,851 immigrants, only 225 
were destined for Georgia. Most of the immigration into 
Georgia after 1865 was from the Northern states of the 
Union. New York was the largest source of Georgia im- 
migrants. In 1870 there were in Georgia 2,208 natives of 
New York, 829 of Pennsylvania, 615 of Massachusetts, 576 
of Connecticut, 367 of New Jersey, 349 of Ohio. This is 
no certain index of the number of Northerners who came 
after the war, for many came in the prosperous decade be- 
fore i860 to try their fortunes in Georgia. The total in- 
crease in the population of Georgia between i860 and 1870 
was about 130,000, or 12 per cent, not at all commensurate 
with the increase before and after. The increase in 1840- 
50 was 31 per cent; in 1850-60, 16 per cent; and in 1870- 
80, 30 per cent. 1 

Population of Georgia 1870 i860 



Whites 
Blacks 



638,926 
545,142 



591,550 
465,698 



total 



1,184,068 



1,057,248 



1 U. S. Census, 1870, vol. i, pp. 4, 5, 299, 306-307, 328-342. 



352 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [352 

This diminution in normal increase was the result of loss 
by war. The increase in white population was only 8 per 
cent, while the blacks increased 17 per cent. The loss repre- 
sented more than mere numbers indicate, for the drain was 
primarily on the most important producing element of the 
community, on males between twenty and fifty years, es- 
pecially on young men under thirty. The following figures 
present a striking record of the havoc of war : 1 



White male population. 


1850 


i860 


1870 




79,025 


93,041 


82,961 




47,339 


57,695 


57,975 




3 I »°27 


37,364 


41,260 




157,391 


188,100 


182,196 



In the census year 1870, as compared with the year i860, 
the birth rate was slightly less — 1:32.10 in 1870 and 
1 : 31.87 in i860. The years after the war were harder on 
negroes in their struggle for existence as freemen than on 
the whites. The death rate of blacks was considerably 
higher than that of whites, especially in towns and cities 
where negroes lived in crowded and unsanitary quarters, 2 
The average size of familes tended to decrease gradually 
between 1850 and 1870. In 1850 the average size of family 
was 5.72 persons; in i860, 5.41 ; and in 1870, 4«98. 8 

The organization of the judiciary underwent varied 

1 U. S. Census, vol. ii, pp. 566-77. 

2 Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 532-3 ; Alvord, Letters from the South; mortuary- 
reports in Savannah, Macon, Augusta, Atlanta papers. 

3 U. S. Census, 1870, vol. i, p. 595. 



I 



353] SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, COURTS 353 

changes in 1865 an d again in 1868. By the constitution 
of 1865 election was substituted for appointment as a means 
of choosing judges of the higher courts, but no material 
change was made in the character or jurisdiction of the 
various courts. Justices of the supreme court were elected 
by the legislature for a term of six years, and judges of 
the superior courts were elected by the voters of the dif- 
ferent circuits for a four-year term. In other respects the 
judicial system remained much the same in 1865 as in 
i860. In 1868 the constitution provided for a more elab- 
orate judiciary. Besides the supreme and the superior 
courts, there were district courts, courts of ordinary and 
probate, and of justices of the peace. Inferior courts of 
the counties were abolished. Jurisdiction of the supreme 
and the superior courts was not materially changed. The 
courts of ordinary took over much of the business of the 
old inferior courts, and between these and the superior 
courts were the newly-organized district courts for each 
senatorial district. Another new feature of the 1868 con- 
stitution was the provision for official attorneys, an attor- 
ney general for the state, solicitors general for each cir- 
cuit, and district attorneys. In 1868 appointment of judges 
took the place of election, and in almost all cases the term 
of office was extended. The governor, with the approval 
of the senate, had the power to appoint the supreme court 
justices, the judges of the superior and district courts, the 
attorney general, solicitors general and district attorneys, 
as well. Ordinaries and justices of the peace were elected. 
The term of office of the judges of the supreme court was 
extended from six to twelve years, and of superior court 
judges, from four to eight years. 1 

Constitution, 1865, Article IV. Constitution, 1868, Article V; also 
W. M. Reese, " Constitutions of Georgia," Report of the Georgia Bar 
Association, 1885. 



354 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [354 

The constitution of 1868 did not confer upon negroes 
the right of jury service. It left to the legislature the duty 
of providing for the method of drawing " upright and intel- 
ligent persons " for juries. 1 Accordingly, in 1869 the legis- 
lature enacted a Jury Law, providing that the ordinary of 
each county, with the clerk of the superior court and three 
commissioners, appointed for each county by the presiding 
judge of the superior court, should meet at the court house 
biennially at a stated time, and select from the books of the 
receivers of tax returns " upright and intelligent persons " 
to serve as jurors. 2 In actual practice under the recon- 
struction government in but very few counties were negroes 
ever drawn on juries. Since county officers were mostly 
Democratic, even in 1868, they did not put the names of 
negroes in the jury box, not classing them as " upright and 
intelligent persons ". a 

Considering the very broad powers of appointment in 
Governor Bullock's hands and the heavy political pressure 
upon him, the judges of his selection were as a general rule 
able and worthy, though in many cases not up to the stand- 
ard of the Georgia bench before the war. The highest office 
within the patronage of Governor Bullock was that of 
chief justice of the supreme court. This place was given 
to Jos. E. Brown as consolation for his defeat for the U. S. 
Senate. His associates were H. K. McCay and Hiram 
Warner. McCay, a prominent Republican in the constitu- 
tional convention, was a lawyer of ability but had no judi- 
cial experience before his appointment to the supreme 
court. Brown had been judge of the Blue Ridge circuit 
before he was elected governor in 1857. Hiram Warner, 

1 Constitution, 1868. 

3 Acts of the General Assembly, 1869, pp. i39-43« 
a Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, pp. 37, 266. 



355] SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, COURTS 353 

a native of Massachusetts, who moved to Georgia in 1821, 
a Union man but not a Republican, appointed for the short 
term, had had a long judicial career. He was justice of the 
supreme court when it was organized in 1845, an ^ * n 
was chief justice under appointment from Governor Jen- 
kins. 1 The lack of harmony in political sentiment be- 
tween Warner on the one hand and Brown and McCay on 
the other resulted in a divided court in almost all the im- 
portant cases which reconstruction issues brought before 
the supreme court. 

The results of war, the change in currency and the eman- 
cipation of the blacks, together with legislation for relief 
and homestead exemption, brought a vast bulk of litigation 
into court of a kind not known before the war. Earlier 
cases were mostly concerned with land titles or slave prop- 
erty, but in the reconstruction period the greatest amount 
of litigation arose over relief, contracts during the war in 
which the consideration was for Confederate currency, stay 
laws, and the status of freedmen. 2 

Though the extensive relief ordinance in the constitution 
of 1868 was stricken out by the command of Congress in 
the bill admitting Georgia to representation in June, 1868, 
various laws looking toward the adjustment of equities of 
contracts made during the war were enacted and came be- 
fore the Supreme Court for construction. On the gen- 
eral principles of relief, in the ordinance of 1865, in the 
act of 1866 and the more comprehensive act of 1868, Jus- 

1 John W. Akin, " Memorial Address on Hiram Warner/' Report of 
the Georgia Bar Association, 1897. 

2 On this subject a paper prepared by Henry R. Goetchius of Colum- 
bus, Ga., as his presidential address before the Georgia Bar Association 
in 1897 is most valuable. I have drawn freely on the summary he 
gives of the most important cases before the courts. " Litigation in 
Georgia during the Reconstruction Period," in Report of the Georgia 
Bar Association, 1897. 



356 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [356 

tices Brown and McCay supported the constitutionality of 
the laws, on the ground that the acts touched only the rem- 
edy for enforcement and not the obligation of the contract. 
In all decisions in cases involving these laws, Justice War- 
ner was in dissent, holding that the laws impaired the obli- 
gation of contracts. Since some features of the relief acts 
were ruled out by the court, in 1870 the legislature passed a 
still more extensive relief measure under the guise of a 
tax act. 1 It set aside from the aid of courts all debts con- 
tracted prior to June, 1865, on which legal taxes had not 
been paid. In the case of Walker v. Whitehead, involving 
this law, brought before the supreme court in 1871, War- 
ner was again in the minority, holding that the law was not 
in intent a revenue measure, but merely an attempt to nul- 
lify a certain class of debts. On appeal to the U. S. Su- 
preme Court in the spring term of 1873, the judgment of 
the Georgia court was reversed and Judge Warner's dis- 
sent sustained. 2 

In the second kind of litigation, cases concerning con- 
tracts made for payment in Confederate currency, the 
supreme court sustained the position of the lower court, 
leaving wide latitude to the jury in finding a specie value 
for Confederate notes, not necessarily at the time of the 
maturity of the note. In one such case, McLaughlin & Co. 

1 Acts of the General Assembly, 1870, pp. 401-402. 

2 The following are the most important cases involving the constitu- 
tionality of the relief acts, cited by Goetchius : 

Walker v. Whitehead, 43 Georgia 539 ; 16 Wallace 314. 
Slaughter et al. v. Culpepper et ah, 35 Georgia 25. 
White v. Lee, 40 Georgia 266. 

Cutts and Johnson et al. v. Hardee, 38 Georgia 350. 
Graham v. Clark, 40 Georgia 660. 
White v. Herndon, 40 Georgia 494. 
Lott v. Dysart, 45 Georgia 355. 
Mitchell v. Elliott, 49 Georgia 125. 



357] SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, COURTS 357 

v. O'Dowd, a set of tables compiled by a broker in Au- 
gusta, known as Barber's Tables, showing the value of Con- 
federate currency from January 1, 1861, to May 1, 1865, 
estimated in gold, was admitted as evidence and accepted 
afterwards in cases of this kind. 1 In two' cases that were 
argued, concerning the payment of notes calling for Con- 
federate currency, the point was brought up that such a 
contract was in aid of rebellion by encouraging the circula- 
tion of Confederate notes, and so was void under the state 
constitution. 2 In this decision Brown was the dissenting 
judge, maintaining the illegality of the contract on the 
ground stated above. In November, 1869, a case involv- 
ing the same principle was decided by the Supreme Court 
of the United States, Thorington v. Smith and Hartley, 
on appeal from the Alabama supreme court. 3 The binding 
force of the contract was upheld. The question was — "Can 
a contract for the payment of Confederate notes, made 
during the late rebellion, between the parties residing in 
the so-called Confederate States, be enforced at all in 
the courts of the United States ? " Incidentally, argument 
arose as to the meaning of the word " dollars " in such con- 
tracts, and as to proof that notes were to 1 be paid only in 
Confederate currency. Arguing that the Confederate gov- 
ernment existed de facto if not de jure, the court decided 
that Confederate notes were lawful currency for those liv- 
ing in the Confederate States, and such contracts were 
therefore binding. 

1 McLaughlin v. O'Dowd, 34 Georgia 487. 

2 Miller v. Artemus and Georgia R. R. & Banking Co. v. Eddleman, 
38 Georgia 467. 

3 Thorington v. Smith & Hartley, 8 Wallace 1. Other cases cited by 
Goetchius : Evans v. Walker, 35 Georgia 117, Cherry v. Walker, 36 
Georgia 327, Abbott v. Dermott, 349 Georgia 226, Dean v. Harvey, 
9 Wallace 15. 



358 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [358 

The validity of the various stay laws enacted by the 
legislature was decided adversely by the supreme court in 
the important case, Aycock et al. v. Martin et al. 1 This 
case attracted wide attention, not only because of the im- 
portance of the principle involved, but also because of the 
distinction of the counsel engaged in the controversy. Lin- 
ton Stephens, the brother of Alex. H. Stephens, and Ben. 
H. Hill, two of the ablest lawyers in Georgia, argued the 
case before the court. Justices Warner and Harris agreed 
that the stay laws were unconstitutional, holding that any 
postponement or obstruction of the fulfilment of the con- 
tract was an impairment of the obligation. Justice Walker 
dissented, holding to the position taken by Brown in later 
cases, that the remedy in enforcement differed from the ob- 
ligation. 2 

Emancipation and the results therefrom brought many 
cases into court, some concerning contracts for slave prop- 
erty, and others involving rights and privileges of f reed- 
men. The decision of the Georgia supreme court that 
contracts for slave property were void, on the basis of the 
clause in the state constitution, was overruled by the U. S. 
Supreme Court. 5 * 

Much litigation concerning the status of freedmen came 
before the court. In the case of Scott v. State of Georgia, 
it decided that the intermarriage of whites and blacks was 
illegal. 4 In the December term, 1866, the supreme court 
pronounced on the competency of persons of color as wit- 
nesses. In Clark v. State of Georgia, a case of appeal from 

1 37 Georgia 124, cited by Goetchius. 

2 Judges Iverson L. Harris and Dawson A. Walker were on the su- 
preme bench in 1866 and 1867 before the court was reorganized in 1868. 

3 White v. Hart, 39 Georgia 306, 13 Wallace 646. Goetchius cites also : 
Shorter v. Cobb, 39 Georgia 285 ; Hand v. Armstrong, 34 Georgia 232. 

4 37 Georgia 124. Cited by Goetchius. 



359] SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, COURTS 359 

a verdict for murder, which was made from testimony 
given by a negro witness, the court declared that the Act 
of March 17, 1866, gave full rights to persons of color. 1 

The most famous case of all concerning negro status was 
that of White v. Clements. The question — Can a negro 
hold office in Georgia ? — was decided by the Supreme Court 
in the June term, 1869. 2 The history of the case was this: 
Richard W. White, a person of color, was elected clerk of 
the superior court of Chatham County in the election in 
April, 1868, defeating Wm. J. Clements. Suit for posses- 
sion of the office was brought by Clements against White 
before the superior court, of the Eastern Circuit, Judge Wm. 
Schley presiding. On the question of fact the jury decided 
that White had one-eighth African blood, and so was a 
" person of color and on question of law the judge de- 
cided that persons of color had rights of citizens, but not 
the right to hold office. When the case was appealed to 
the supreme court, able counsel was engaged on both sides. 
The best Republican lawyers in the state, A. W. Stone and 
A. T. Akerman, took charge of White's side of the case, 
and Julian Hartridge and Thos. E. Lloyd, both prominent 
lawyers of Savannah, represented Clements. White's coun- 
sel rested their case on the following propositions : 

(1) The constitution of Georgia made colored people 
citizens ; 

(2) the constitution of Georgia adopted Irwin's Code; 

(3) the code provided among rights of citizens the elec- 
tive franchise and the right to hold office (section 1648) ; 

(4) all citizens of Georgia were entitled to exercise all 
rights as such, unless specially prohibited by law; 

(5) colored citizens were not so prohibited. 

1 35 Georgia 175. 

2 39 Georgia 232; also a pamphlet published in Atlanta, 1869, 179 pages, 
giving full argument of counsel, records of the case in the lower court, 
and opinions of judges. 



360 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [360 

The decision of the court, Brown and McCay concurring, 
was that persons of color were eligible to office. Brown 
rested his opinion on the code, but McCay thought that the 
right was conferred by the constitution of 1868. Judge 
Warner, dissenting, took the stand that the right was no- 
where conferred by the constitution — the clause conferring 
it had been expressly stricken out by the convention of 
1868 — nor was the section of the code applicable, since 
negroes were not citizens in the meaning of the law when 
the law cited (section 1648 of Irwin's Code) was adopted. 

The political aspects of this case were far-reaching. The 
main interest was not in the clerkship of a Chatham County 
court, but in the relation of the decision to the eligibility 
of negroes to the legislature, from which they had been ex- 
pelled in the preceding September. Conservative white 
citizens had in the decision another source for bitterness 
against Jos. E. Brown, for in 1868, when the constitution 
was before the people for adoption, he gave as his opinion 
that the constitution did not confer the right to office on ne- 
groes. 1 

Considering the political upheaval and uncertainty in the 
years following the war, the temper of the courts was re- 
markably conservative and steadying in its influence. With 
many new kinds of questions coming before the courts for 
adjudication, in the lack of precedent, judges had to blaze 
new trails. As a distinguished Georgia lawyer said, con- 
cerning litigation of the reconstruction period, there was a 
gradual drifting away from the enforcement of technicali- 
ties toward the administration of justice on broader prin- 
ciples of equity and a sense of right. The necessity of the 
day gave courage to break away from old forms and pre- 
cedents. 2 



1 Supra, p. 215. 

2 Goetchius, Report of the Georgia Bar Association, 1897, p. 103. 



CHAPTER XIV 



Ku Klux and Social Disorder 

In the first two years after the war Georgia suffered 
considerably from lawlessness and social disorganization 
attendant upon the break-up of the old civil order, and 
more from difficulties arising from the new-found liberty, 
or license, of the freedmen. Better opportunities for work 
and less idleness at the beginning of 1867 encouraged the 
hope that conditions were growing better slowly but stead- 
ily. But the political changes of 1867 brought a change for 
the worse instead of the better. Much that had been ac- 
complished toward social adjustment by these first two years 
of painful effort was swept aside. By emancipation the 
negro became a social menace to the class of poor whites. 
By becoming a voter he was a source of danger to the 
whites of all classes. 

The Ku Klux Committee of Congress in 1871, the Com- 
mittee to Investigate Conditions in the Late Insurrection- 
ary States, examined into affairs in Georgia as in other 
states, most assiduously hunting for " outrages ". In the 
two volumes of testimony pertaining to Georgia it was 
brought out that the disturbances in the years 1868-71 were 
confined mostly to two sections of the state, to the extreme 
northwest and to a part of the upper cotton-belt. The 
counties especially under investigation as centers of dis- 
turbance were: (1) Dade, Walker, Murray, Chattooga, 
Gordon, Floyd, Bartow, Polk, Haralson, Jackson, Gwin- 
nett, Walton; (2) Clarke, Morgan, Oglethorpe, Greene,. 
361] 361 



362 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [362 

Taliaferro, Warren, Columbia. Conditions within these 
counties constitute the first twelve mentioned as one group 
and the others a second group. 

All of the counties of the first group were predominantly 
white in population; in the registration under the Recon- 





Population 


Registration 
1867. 


Vote for 
Governor, 
April, 1868. 


Vote for 
President, 
November, 
1868. 




in i860. 










• 












<u 


• 

ft 


• 

M 

O 


O 












-4-» 


O 




M 


JO 


s 


c 

OS 











O 

u 


w 
O 


W 


>> 


O 


T\aAa 


White over 


90 % 


454 


33 


284 


65 


310 


18 


Walker 


White over 


75 


1364 


230 


659 


509 


824 


426 




White over 


75 


887 


118 


5°9 


35° 


629 


338 




White over 


60 


727 


223 


495 


207 


534 


147 




White over 


75 


1340 


222 


787 


328 


894 


324 




White over 


60 


1669 


890 


1223 


804 


1525 


591 




White over 


60 


1976 


682 


1484 


754 


1473 


668 


Polk 


White over 


60 


883 


387 


601 


337 


485 


3 ! 9 




White over 


60 


499 


38 


204 


249 


218 


201 




White over 


50 


1 138 


5 6 4 


576 


671 


io55 


264 




White over 


75 


1633 


34i 


886 


5°5 


1249 


388 




White over 


50 


1024 


683 


725 

1 


632 


1082 


382 



struction Acts in 1867 these counties all had a goodly major- 
ity of white over black electors. The whites, on a straight 
vote, could dominate politically. Hence there was no need 
of a political motive to explain the attacks upon the blacks 



363] KU KLUX AND SOCIAL DISORDER 363 

in this section. In spite of the fact that there were many 
white Republicans in North Georgia, all of these counties, 
with the exception of Haralson and Jackson, were Demo- 
cratic even in the first election in the spring of 1868, and 
these two had Democratic majorities in the fall of that 
year. "Outrages" were chiefly cases of whipping for theft, 
or of attack on negroes known to associate with low white 
women. Some cases were reported of negroes being 
whipped and intimidated to prevent their voting. But even 
this was more social than political in purpose. Political 
results could not be much affected by the negro's vote, but 
by it he might be inclined to think he was "as good as white 
folks". Disturbances of the Ku Klux sort lasted in North- 
west Georgia from the period immediately after the war 
until 1 87 1 or later. Few arrests were made of men 
who were suspected of engaging in these attacks. One 
such rare case occurred in Chattooga County where three 
men were captured and convicted on a charge of robbery, 
taking guns from negroes, for which they were sentenced 
to a term of seven years in the penitentiary. The only inci- 
dent of much political significance was the threat upon G. 
P. Burnett, a Republican candidate for Congress in this dis- 
trict. In the campaign of 1870, Burnett, going from Rome 
to Summerville, was visited by a band of men who fired 
pistols toward the house where he was staying and warned 
him not to make a speech. Burnett heeded the warning, 
left town and avoided further difficulty. In Gwinnett 
County bands of night riders set out after negroes who had 
been stealing, simply scaring some and whipping others. In 
Haralson County the most important outrage was the kill- 
ing of a colored man because he had been associating with 
a low white woman. In Walton County a negro woman 
was whipped and warned not to " sass " white ladies. In 
Floyd County a light mulatto was dealt with because he 



364 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [364 

greeted a white woman insolently — " How d'ye, Sis ". In 
Murray County in March, 1869, a negro was lynched by 
a mob for committing rape upon a young lady, his for- 
mer owner. A year later another lynching for a simi- 
lar crime took place in Dal ton. 1 In Bartow County, in 
1870 a gang of night riders burned the house of a white 
man, a Unionist. But this was thought to be an act of ven- 
geance upon the victim for giving evidence against illicit 
distillers. This was the kind of disturbance that occurred 
with some frequency in the mountainous counties of North- 
east Georgia, where organizations were thought to exist 
for the protection of " moonshiners ". This particular kind 
of informal justice, however, did not begin or end with 
the period of reconstruction. 

The chief motive assigned for the attacks on negroes was 
" to control them ", " to keep them down ". More than 
one case appeared where negroes were driven off when they 
seemed to be prospering too well in a neighborhood of 
poor, thriftless whites. What was termed " impudence " to 
white people was a frequent cause of discipline upon the 
blacks, described thus : " If there is any dispute about a 
settlement or anything of that sort, it is not expected that 
a colored man will contend, in a white man's face, for any- 
thing as a white man would. Any language that he would 
regard as not offensive at all from a white man would be 
impudence from a negro ". 2 Or again : " It is considered 
impudence for a negro not to be polite to a white man — 
not to pull off his hat and bow and scrape to a white man, 
as was always done formerly." 3 In Chattooga County a 
school-house for negroes, erected by a white farmer, was 

1 1 have found what seem to be authentic reports of seven cases of 
rape by negroes upon white women in the years 1868-70. 

2 Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, p. 36. 

3 Ibid., p. 66. 



365] KU KLUX AND SOCIAL DISORDER 365 

torn down by a band of men from the neighborhood because 
they considered it too close to the school for white children. 
Lawlessness, not uncommon in North Georgia before and 
during the war, was aggravated by the bad habits and vio- 
lence resulting from war. Personal quarrels, ending in the 
stabbing or killing of one or more victims, were frequent 
among white people. 

Carpet-baggers played no political part in the northern 
section of Georgia. There were no political adventurers to 
stir up the negroes to a new sense of power, and county 
officers in almost all cases were Democrats. The real cause 
of disturbance in the northern section of the state was due 
fundamentally to the racial animosity of the poorer class of 
whites to the blacks. Emancipation removed the most im- 
portant barrier between the poor whites and the negroes, 
and when the two classes were given political equality, the 
poor white, with neither economic nor political advantage, 
had no source of superiority except his race. The use made 
of this racial antagonism by leaders of both parties is ex- 
plained by a witness from North Georgia before the Ku 
Klux Committee thus : 

One great cause, I think, for the persecution of the recon- 
struction men and the republicans is this : There is in the 
country now, as there was before the war, a class of men 
who are bitterly opposed to the colored people, and to whom 
the colored people are bitterly opposed. Since the war, that 
feeling on the part of the non-slaveholders toward the negroes 
has been worse, mostly confined to that element, for most of 
the negroes were republicans. The shrewd, smart, cunning 
men of the country among the democratic masses took advan- 
tage of that feeling. While they probably would not coun- 
tenance any direct, open assassination, nevertheless they took 
advantage of the prejudice of this class of men against the 
colored people and against the republicans, most of the colored 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [366 

men being republicans, and fanned their passions and kept 
them alive against the colored people, and that portion of the 
white people who acted with the republicans. 1 

A different situation existed in the second group of coun- 
ties. Here blacks constituted 60 per cent or more of the 
population and in 1867 colored registered voters largely 
outnumbered the whites. In these counties in the neigh- 
borhood of Augusta, to the south and west, there were sev- 
eral notorious leaders of the blacks, some carpet-baggers 
and some native Republicans, who kept their influence over 
the negroes by inciting them against the whites. This was 
the cause of several of the most notorious outrages in the 
state. Warren County especially was the scene of much 
lawlessness and great activity from Ku Klux bands. In 
March, 1869, Dr. George W. Darden, who had killed the 
editor of a newspaper in Warrenton, was taken from jail 
and shot to death. A band of men, not trusting to the jus- 
tice of the courts or fearing pardon by the governor, took 
the law into their own hands. It is not clear that any politi- 
cal motive entered into the case. More notorious than the 
Darden murder was that of Joseph Adkins, just two 
months after Darden was killed. Adkins, a Radical mem- 
ber of the state senate, had other qualities in addition to 
his politics which made him obnoxious to the white people 
of his community. From all accounts he was a thoroughly 
disreputable, low white man, consorting with negro women 
and inciting the passions of the negroes against white peo- 
ple. Though proclamations of reward were published no 

1 Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, p. 74. References for social disorder 
in Northwest Georgia : Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, pp. 20-4, 32, 35, 36, 
38, 40, 41-s, 49-51, 56, 65, 66, 74-5, 78, 105, 131, 135-6, 35i, 37i, 373, 378, 
391, 402, 413, 426, 493, 497, 529-30; vol. vii, p. 603; Macon Telegraph, 
March 21, 1869; Savannah News, March 23, 1869; Augusta Constitu- 
tionalist, February 13, 1870. 



366 



367] KU KLUX AND SOCIAL DISORDER 367 

arrests were ever made in connection with these two mur- 
ders, which figured largely in the political controversy over 
the second reconstruction of Georgia. 1 

In June, 1869, General Terry, reporting that there was 
no civil law in Warren County, that an insurrectionary or- 
ganization terrorized the place, sent a detachment of troops 
to aid the sheriff in enforcing order. The sheriff of the 
county, Chap. Norris, was apparently a reason in himself 
for local disturbance. He was thoroughly incompetent, 
lavish in arrests and threats without evidence to substan- 
tiate his charges. His testimony before the Ku Klux Com- 
mittee sounds decidedly unreliable in great part, especially 
his narrative of his own experience in being shot at in War- 
renton at election time in November, 1868. He tried to 
make himself appear a martyr to the Republican cause in 
that his life was unsafe in Warrenton on account of his 
politics — this, in spite of the fact that the so-called attack 
on his life was not reported until several months after it 
supposedly took place, and that he remained in Warrenton 
four months after he considered his life to be in jeopardy. 
Major Van Voast, in command of the troops sent to War- 
renton, reported to General Terry on June 6, 1869. His re- 
port showed him to be a sane, unhysterical observer of con- 
ditions, not entirely in sympathy with politicians in Atlanta 
who were trying to make the conditions appear as vicious 
as possible to secure renewed reconstruction and the elimi- 
nation of Democrats from the legislature. Van Voast said 
that Sheriff* Norris seemed to think he could make arrests 
without regard to law, using troops at his own discretion. 
Men arrested by him were released under habeas corpus 

1 Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, pp. 197-200, 207-8, 266-9, 283-4, 288-9, 
477; Macon Telegraph, May 13, 1869; Savannah News, March 18, 1869; 
reports of Gen. Terry and Maj. Van Voast, Hse. Exec. Doc, 41 C. f 
2 S., no. 288, pp. 2-15. 



368 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [368 

proceedings, advised by the military and by Attorney-Gen- 
eral Farrow. Major Van Voast reported that the existence 
of a Ku Klux organization in Warren and the adjoining 
counties was admitted by all persons. Some said its object 
was protection, originally started for good, but then be- 
yond control and frequently used for personal interests. 
In regard to the Adkins murder, Van Voast's opinion was 
that it was planned, not necessarily by a large body, and he 
was uncertain whether or not Ku Klux were engaged in it. 
Adkins was undoubtedly killed for his Radical opinions, 
though the better element of his political opponents would 
not countenance murder. He had many enemies and few 
friends. Only three whites had voted for him in his elec- 
tion to the state senate. Many people rejoiced that he was 
out of the way though they regretted the manner of his 
death. Many others of the same politics as Adkins were 
unmolested, not regarded as obnoxious because they did not 
incite the negroes against the white people. 1 

In Jefferson County, a little to the south of Warren, 
about the time of the Adkins murder another member of 
the legislature was killed. Dr. Benj. Ayer, the victim in 
this case, was much the same sort of person as Adkins, 
thoroughly objectionable to the white people in the neigh- 
borhood for his intimate relations with negroes. In re- 
sponse to the charge made in Northern newspapers that Dr. 
Ayer would never have been killed if he had not been a 
Radical, a Macon editor replied : " True, if he had not been 
a Carpet-bag Radical, consorting and cohabiting with ne- 
groes at midnight and tempting them with display of his 
money, he would not have been murdered." 2 In Jefferson 

1 Report of Maj. Van Voast, op. cit. ; also Milledgeville Federal Union, 
May 10, 1870; Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, pp. 193 et seq. 

2 Macon Telegraph, April 20, 25, May 1, 1869. 



369] KU KLUX AND SOCIAL DISORDER 369 

County, also, Ku Klux bands dealt with obstreperous ne- 
groes by tying them up or whipping them or burning their 
houses. Earlier, in November, 1867, a mob, probably not 
Ku Klux, wrought speedy vengeance upon a negro who 
committed rape upon a white woman. Some months later 
a squad of soldiers appeared, arrested eleven white men 
suspected of taking part in the lynching, and took them to 
Atlanta. 1 

With many cases of violence that actually occurred there 
were many more reported that never took place. Belcher, 
one of the negro Republicans in Georgia, wrote to Charles 
Sumner, May 14, 1869, that since his previous letter two 
more colored men were made " victims of rebel treachery". 
" If Congress does not interfere in our behalf, every loyal 
man in Georgia that can get away, will become an exile." 
The two reputed victims were later discovered to be alive 
and flourishing, but in the meantime the report of more Ku 
Klux murders for political purposes was spread broadcast 
through the Republican journals of the North. 2 

The Ku Klux organization was formed in Augusta in 
March, 1868, just before the state election. The Augusta 
Chronicle had this note from the editor: "We learn that a 
Klan has been organized in this place and that the faithful 
are holding nightly meetings for the purpose of conferring 
the honors of the mystic brotherhood upon such worthy ap- 
plicants as may seek admission within their walls. Success 
say we to the Ku Klux !" 3 And again : " Four strangers 
entered a shoe store in this city on March 24th and bought 
four pair of India rubber shoes. Were they for Ku Klux? 

1 Report of the Freedmen's Bureau in the Report of the Secretary 
of War, 1868-9, vol. i, p. 1044; Augusta Chronicle, March 26, 1868. 

3 Macon Telegraph, May 25, 29, 1869. 

3 March 25, 1868. 



370 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [370 

Do they mean them 'to tread softly with', or are they for a 
' bloody month' and a ' muddy day ' ?" 1 And a few days 
later the editor mentioned a mysterious order spreading 
rapidly throughout the country, carrying consternation and 
dismay to craven hearts of traitors, scalawags, and bum- 
mers. 2 But the Ku Klux rarely operated in cities and 
no report of activities was heard from Augusta itself. A 
prominent citizen of Augusta, a member of a Ku Klux band 
of about forty for a part of Richmond and the southern 
part of Columbia County, said that his band was never 
called out as there was nothing for them to do. Negroes 
knew there was such an organization and caused no trouble. 
However, there was some difficulty and work for the Ku 
Klux in the northern part of Columbia County. 3 In July, 
1869, a body of armed men forcibly removed from jail 
and put to death a freedman and his wife, accused of mur- 
der. Governor Bullock requested General Terry to send 
troops to the scene of the difficulty, as the civil authorities 
of the county, he declared, were in sympathy with or over- 
awed by the insurrectionary organization. The governor's 
offer of $5,000 reward availed nothing toward bringing the 
conspirators to light. 4 In Augusta and other places at elec- 
tion time frays occurred between blacks and whites. In 
the November election of 1868 a small riot was quelled by 
troops. A negro made some insulting remarks to a white 
man who responded by drawing his pistol and firing. Two 
other freedmen were killed at the polls in an altercation 
with some railway employees about precedence in voting. 

1 March 26, 1868. 

2 March 31, 1868. 

s Conversation with Mr. S. M. Mays of Augusta. Stearns, Black 
Man of the South and the Rebels, pp. 65, 249-51 ; Macon Telegraph, 
January 19, 1869. 

4 Macon Telegraph, August 11, 1869. 



371 ] KU KLUX AND SOCIAL DISORDER 3^ 

Augusta, where Radicals, mostly Freedmen's Bureau and 
other government agents, controlled the city government in 
1868 and after, was the scene of much disorder and lawless- 
ness. 1 

In Wilkes County trouble arose because the U. S. reve- 
nue assessor of the district was a negro Republican, Belcher. 
People made it unpleasant for the assistant assessor, a 
white man named Haygood, because he was willing to work 
under a negro. Little boys used to run after him on the 
street and taunt him with such remarks as — " I smell 
Belcher." Troops were sent from Atlanta for the protec- 
tion of the revenue officers; and the supervisor of the dis- 
trict, reporting the defiant attitude of the Ku Klux in 
Wilkes County, at the same time recommended that the 
resignation of Assistant Assessor Haygood be accepted. 2 
The Ku Klux in Wilkes County, as in most places, were the 
best people, old and young alike, operating for social and 
political purposes as well. The young men were bolder, 
wishing to undertake more vigorous measures against Gov- 
ernor Bullock himself, but in these desires they were re- 
strained by the older men. 3 In the neighboring county of 
Greene one of the Freedmen's Bureau teachers was driven 
away and the man with whom he boarded was taken out of 
his house at night and whipped. 4 And in Morgan County 
the band shot into the house of a negro elected to the legis- 
lature. 5 

In Clarke County the Ku Klux organization sprang up 

1 Savannah News, September 19, 1867; Macon Telegraph, January 
19, 1869; Augusta Chronicle, November 4, 1868; 'Stearns, op. ext., 
pp. 249-51. 

% Milled geville Federal Union, August 3, 10, 1869. 

3 This is from conversation with Miss E. F. Andrews of Wash- 
ington, Ga., author of a War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl. 

4 Alvord, Letters from the South, 1870, p. 22. 

5 Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, p. 250. 



372 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 

to check growing evils in the community, to rid the county 
of dangerous characters and to keep the negroes in check. 
Mr. Hull, in his Annals of Athens, says that the Ku Klux 
in that county were not a body of fantastics out for a 
frolic, but a group of serious men, the most esteemed in the 
community. The members were organized in bands of 
twenty or thirty under a captain when there was work to do. 
Mysterious notices, understood by members but appalling to 
others, were nailed to barn doors. Members assembled in 
disguise and secret word was passed as to the business in 
hand. The ordinary business was to visit the house of an 
idle negro who was a nuisance, to terrify him by ghostly 
scenes, whip him into subordination, and warn him that the 
second visit would be more disastrous. He knew of only 
one such visitation in Clarke County that proved fatal. The 
most conspicuous case of Ku Klux action in the county was 
the attack on the negro, Alf. Richardson, member of the 
legislature, disliked by the whites on account of his inso- 
lence and his disturbing influence over the negroes. When 
the Ku Klux band went to Richardson's house and called 
him out, he refused to obey and gave fight. In the shoot- 
ing that followed one of the Ku Klux band and a negro- 
with Richardson were shot, the negro dying a few days 
later. 1 This same Alf. Richardson, when called as a wit- 
ness before the Ku Klux investigating committee, reported 
many outrages on negroes, among which were cases of 
whipping of negro women, explained by him as follows : 2 

Many times, you know, a white lady has a colored lady for a 
cook or waiting in the house, or something of that sort. They 
have some quarrel, and sometimes probably the colored 
woman gives the lady a little jaw. In a night or two a crowd 
will come in and take her out and whip her. 

1 Hull, Athens, pp. 322-4; Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, p. 235. 

2 Ibid., p. 12. 



373] KU KLUX AXD SOCIAL DISORDER 373 

J. H. Christy, elected to Congress from the district of 
which Athens formed a part, testified before the Ku Klux 
Committee that there was comparatively little lawlessness 
in Athens. Stories of violence were largely exaggerated. 
As to the behavior of the blacks he said : 

As a general thing they behave better than I had any idea they 
would. As to working, they do better than I thought they 
would, a great many of them. There are some of them who 
gather about the towns and tell these cock-and-bull stories 
about being run off by the Ku Klux. The truth is, they come 
to town because they do not want to work. Generally the 
negroes work better than I supposed they would. A great 
many of them acquire property. I suppose there are from 
sixty to seventy-five in my town who have houses and lots. 
They are industrious negroes, and are encouraged and pro- 
tected by the white people, who sell them lots cheap. They 
are inclined to become property-holders. 1 

According to the narrative of the head of the Ku Klux 
Klan in Oglethorpe County, Mr. John C. Reed, the organi- 
zation was formed in that section in the early summer of 
1868 to overcome the effects of Democratic defeat in the 
April election of that year. General Dudley M. DuBose, 
the son-in-law of Robert Toombs, was head of the Klan in 
that congressional district. The first appearance of the 
Klan in active operation was just before the November elec- 
tion in 1868, when they rode out to frighten the negroes. 
On election day the Ku Klux by their activity and their con- 
stant vigilance, aided by the absence of any powerful carpet- 
bagger leaders of the blacks, carried things their own 
way. In Oglethorpe County the vote for Bullock was 
1,144, for Gordon, 557: in November, 116 votes were cast 
for Grant, 849 for Seymour. In the state election in De- 



1 Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, p. 243. 



374 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [374 

cember, 1870, the Ku Klux of Oglethorpe County were 
again busy to keep the negroes from voting. This was 
done in some cases by threatening prosecution of negroes 
who tried to vote without paying their poll tax, which re- 
quirement for suffrage had been set aside by the legislature. 
Outright payment for voting the right way or for refrain- 
ing from voting was not uncommon. In Wilkes County 
the tale was told that negroes asked and received from no. 
less a person than Robert Toombs a quarter or a half-dol- 
lar for a vote. To' a U. S. detective, who must have seen 
the procedure, Toombs, just as he paid one lot, is reported 
to have said : " Sir, are you not touched by this spectacle of 
the unbought suffrages of a free people?" This may be 
only fable, but it is characteristically Toombsian, at least. 
Mr. Reed insists that the Klan as he knew it was political 
in motive and work rather than social. Yet his account of 
operations showed clearly that it was a force for social 
regulation as well, else why did the Ku Klux deal with aj 
negro from the North because he preached intermarriage of 
the races, or with a white man because he lived with a negro 
woman? And again, he showed that the Klan was more 
than an instrument to turn the results from Republican to 
Democratic victory, in characterizing it thus : " It was a 
police, rather than a military force, an underground and 
nocturnal constabulary, detective, interclusive, interceptive, 
repressive, preventive — in the main — punitive only now and 
then, where it showed some faint resemblance to the Vehm- 
gericht ". 1 

In this upper section of the cotton-belt, where the blacks 
could and did outvote the whites, to regain their lost suprem- 
acy meant to the white people the task of pushing the negroes 
out of politics by fair means or foul. Since the blacks were 



1 Reed, "What I Know of the Ku Klux Klan," Uncle Remus Magazine. 



375] 



KU KLUX AND SOCIAL DISORDER 



375 



controlled by astute leaders, some negroes, some Northern 
adventurers, the task of diverting the negro from political 
interests was by no means easy. Hence, foul, rather than 
fair means were frequently the resort of determined citizens. 
With a large majority of negro voters Bullock carried every 
one of these counties in the gubernatorial election in 1868. 
In November of the same year, the Democratic ticket for 



Decline in the Republican Vote 





Population in i860. 


Registration, 
1867 


Vote for 
governor. 


Vote for 
president. 


White. 


Colored. 


Gordon. 


Bullock. 


Seymour. 


Grant. 




Black and white even 


955 


1156 


836 


1068 


1197 


1 186 


Oglethorpe .. 


Black over 60 % 


830 


1158 


557 


1 144 


849 


116 


Morgan 


Black over 60 


630 


1229 


455 


1202 


635 


1046 




Black over 60 


1002 


1528 


808 


1632 


1 001 


1200 


Taliaferro . . . 


Black over 60 


392 


558 


346 


627 


5*9 


187 




Black over 60 


75i 


1219 


544 


1 124 


881 


188 


Columbia .... 


Black over 60 


669 


1859 

1 


457 


1222 

I 


1 120 


1 



presidential electors was successful in all but two of these 
same counties. In Clarke County political reversal, brought 
about by a large increase in the Democratic vote with no 
corresponding decline in Republican numbers, may have, 
been due to the fact that citizens.,disfranchised in the April 
election were able to vote under state laws in November. 
But the result merits other explanation in Oglethorpe, War- 
ren, Columbia and Taliaferro counties. The marked de- 
cline in the Republican vote is a certain indication that 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [376 

many negroes did not vote. In Columbia, for instance, 
only one Republican vote was cast in November, where 
there were 1,222 in April; in Oglethorpe the decline was 
from 1,144 to 116; in Warren, from 1,124 to 188; in Talia- 
ferro, from 627 to 187. Judging from results it is evident 
that the Ku Klux made their work thorough in this sec- 
tion. 

In comparison with the upper cotton-belt, other sections 
of Georgia were fairly orderly, with the exception of a few 
marked disturbances like the Ogeechee riot in the swamps 
below Savannah, the Camilla riot in the southwest and the 
notorious murder of Ashburn in Columbus. In Middle 
Georgia the Ku Klux were organized but found compara- 
tively little to do. In the spring of 1868 signs of Ku Klux 
appeared in Columbus, in Macon and in Milledgeville. The 
following notice was copied in a Milledgeville paper from 
the Columbus Enquirer of March 25th: 1 

K.K.K. What are they? What about them? We noticed 
these mysterious letters in chalk on many of the store doors 
and windows on Broad Street on Sunday morning. We saw 
no one who knew anything about how they got there. Can it 
be the terrible " KU KLUX KLAN " have been riding their 
pale horses about Columbus? Is it necessary to take any 
heads off about here to fix the backbones of our people ? We 
want to know about them. 

The Milledgeville Federal Union, in August, 1868, noted 
that papers in Georgia had much to say about negroes drill- 
ing, preparing for conflict with the whites, under the incite- 
ment of bad men, both white and black. But in Milledge- 
ville and the vicinity there appeared to be no hostile demon- 
stration, all was going peaceably. 2 At the beginning of 



376 



1 Milledgeville Federal Union, March 31, 1868. 

2 Ibid., August 25, 1868. 



377] KU KLUX AND SOCIAL DISORDER 377 

1869 the Grand Jury of Jasper County in Middle Georgia 
congratulated the people of the county on the social and 
material condition and the general kind feeling prevailing 
between the races. 1 

In Macon, according to the opinion of a negro Republi- 
can, H. M. Turner, order prevailed under a good Demo- 
cratic mayor; and equally optimistic reports came from 
other parts of Central Georgia, with only sporadic cases of 
lawlessness. Some such cases occurred in Wilkinson 
County, where the Ku Klux interfered to show that whites 
and blacks should not live together. The sheriff of the 
county, who had a colored woman for wife, was killed, and 
a colored man, who had been associating with a low white 
woman, was severely dealt with. 2 

In Atlanta, too, the Ku Klux were organized before the 
election of 1868, though there is no evidence of their ac- 
tivity, except in arousing fear among the blacks by the pub- 
lication of terrorizing notices. The following was pub- 
lished in the Atlanta Intelligencer on March 14, 1868, with 
an introductory note from the editor disavowing knowledge 
from whom or whence it came : 

Headquarters Mystic Order of the Ku Klux Klan, 
Office Grand Cyclops " Red Legion," 
Order of Grand Cross of Mystery, 

March 9, 1868. 

circular order. 

To the High and Mighty, the Grand Cyclops and Illustrious 
Commander of the Ku Klux Klan, the Klansmen and Broth- 
ers of the Great Circle everywhere send greeting: 

I. It is meet that the Grand Cyclops of the Red Legion, 

1 Macon Telegraph, January 7, 1869. 

2 Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, p. 359; Condition of affairs in Georgia, 
Hse. Mis. Doc, 40 C, 3 S., no. 52. 



-378 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



Order of the Grand Cross of Mystery, should acknowledge 
the greetings and return the congratulations of the G.G.C., 
as announced in the General Circular, dated from Head- 
quarters First Moon, and published to the Klansmen of the 
Great Circle everywhere on the first instant. 

II. Klansmen ! It is good to know that we are prosperous, 
but in the hour of prosperity remember the " poor and needy," 
and cease not to do justice to the afflicted and oppressed ! In 
the pride of our strength, fail not to defend the orphan and 
protect the weak ! In the strength of our numbers, be faith- 
ful to ourselves, true to the promptings of manhood, and 
square your actions upon the principles of justice and right. 
Be wise, cool, calm, cautious, wary, and brave. Be silent. 
Pass on, and heed not the growling of the wolf ; but if he 
follows you far, ring the signal, and award the doom of the 
hound upon the tiger's back ! To your enemies " be wise 
as a serpent," and, like the righteous, " bold as a lion ;" to 
your friends, " harmless as doves," and, like the children of 
God, " meek and lowly." The High God of the Universe 
smiles approval upon your charity. Your efforts bask in the 
sunlight of a bright prosperity. 

III. The Grand Cyclops of the Red Legion, Order of the 
Grand Cross of Mystery, announces to his Klan the confirma- 
tion by the Great Grand Cyclops of the sentence of the Second 
Grand Division, convened by order of Grand Giant Bangor, as 
passed upon Dloura Cidened, the Traitor. — Treachery has met 
with its reward, and the Red Hand of the Grand Executioner 
is scarce stayed from its work of swift and terrible retributive 
vengeance upon the cowardly slayer of the innocent. 

We have welcomed in our midst the Knight Hawk Mes- 
senger of the Grand Turks, and the flesh and bone of the 
traitor has been offered up as a sacrifice upon the altar of the 
innocent and lost. Our wrath has been appeased ; we have 
tasted and are satisfied. Homage is due and is rendered unto 
Him who alone can vouchsafe power to the weak and avenge 
'the blood of murdered innocence. 

By the Order of the G.C.R.L.O.G.C.M.— stella, G.S. 



379] KU KLUX AND SOCIAL DISORDER 379 

There was a great deal of disorder of one sort or another 
in Atlanta during the years of reconstruction, for it was 
the center towards which drifted the lowest element of both 
races. At a Republican torchlight procession in August, 
1868, a policeman arrested a drunken, disorderly negro. 
When other negroes attempted to rescue the prisoner, shots 
were exchanged, wounding the policeman, killing one negro 
and wounding two others. 1 Occurrences such as this were 
not rare. A paper in another Georgia city, under the cap- 
tion, " A Busy Day in Atlanta ", noted the following hap- 
penings of one day: a little boy " brickbatted " a colored 
senator; an indignant colored person shot another colored 
man in the National Hotel; Representative Atkins had a 
pitched battle with another man ; and Representative Neal 
and Representative Rice indulged in fisticuffs on the floor 
of the House. 2 In Henry County, south o<f Atlanta, the 
Klan was organized and found work to do occasionally, es- 
pecially in the eastern part of the county where the negroes 
were more obstreperous. Only one case of treatment there 
ended fatally, and that happened because the negro gave 
fight and the Klan members had to kill him or run the 
chances of discovery. The members of the Henry County 
Klan, when out on their night work, wore various kinds of 
disguises : some had a large coat like a linen duster, others 
simply turned their ordinary apparel wrong side out, tying 
a handkerchief across their faces, leaving the eyes uncov- 
ered.* 

In Savannah during election time in the spring and fall 
of 1868 difficulties arose occasionally between whites and 

1 Milled geville Federal Union, August 25, 1868. 

2 Savannah Advertiser, September 30, 1870. 

3 Henry County Weekly, April 24, 1908. Memorial number contains 
reminiscences of various old residents. 



3 8o 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



blacks. 1 The notorious negro leader, A. A. Bradley, who 
was expelled from the legislature of 1868 on the charge of 
having served sentence for felony in New York State, was 
a thorn in the flesh of the white people of Savannah. He 
was constantly active in organizing the blacks, in urging 
them to hold meetings and in stirring up their passions by 
incendiary speeches. To terrify the negroes, Ku Klux in 
Savannah posted their warnings before the April elections 
in 1 868. 2 The Loyal League retaliated with its own threats. 
The following is a copy of a handbill, believed to have 
emanated from Bradley, circulated among negroes on the 
streets : 8 

Take 
Notice 
K. K. K. 
And all BADMEN of the 
City of Savannah, who now 
THREATEN 
the LIVES of all the LEADERS 
and NOMINEES of the Republican Party, and the 
President and Members of the Union League 
of America. If you Strike a Blow, the 
Man or Men will be followed, and the 
house in which he or they takes shelter, 
will be burned to the ground. 
TAKE HEED! MARK WELL! ! 
Members of the Union. 
Rally ! Rally ! ! Rally ! ! ! 
For God, Life and Liberty! ! ! 

A large amount of crime and lawlessness in Savannah 

1 Savannah News, October 1, 1867; February 5, April 9, 1868; Ku Klux 
Committee, vol. vi, p. 176. 

2 Savannah News, April 2 and 3, 1868. 

3 Ibid., April 2, 1868. 



381] KU KLUX AND SOCIAL DISORDER 38 1 

was due to the numbers of negro refugees who crowded 
into the city from Florida and South Carolina and the sur- 
rounding Georgia districts. They worked as stevedores or 
longshoremen, or got small jobs on the wharves during the 
cotton-shipping season, spending the rest of their time in 
idleness and crime. In 1868, the police records of the city 
noted 622 arrests of whites and 1,289 of blacks. 1 South 
of Savannah, along the coast, in Glynn, Liberty and Mc- 
intosh counties, where blacks outnumbered whites, Loyal 
Leagues gained full sway over the negroes by promises of 
property and appeals to their superstition. Here conditions 
easily encouraged vagabondage among the blacks. An 
abundance of food, fish, oysters, game, plenty of lightwood, 
and the existence of colonies of negro squatters along the 
Sea Islands made living extremely precarious for the own- 
ers of plantations in that region. The negroes were of a 
lower order of intelligence than those in the interior, dif- 
fering from them in language and religion, superstitious 
and easily susceptible to bad influences. From time to time 
disturbances occurred on various plantations when negroes 
proceeded to plunder right and left. On General Gordon's 
rice plantation near Brunswick the negroes drove the over- 
seer away and would have had everything their own way 
had not the Freedmen's Bureau agent interfered with the 
aid of soldiers to settle the difficulty. A friend of the 
negro, a missionary from the North, was grieved to note 
" the innate propensity of the negro to purloin from 
others ". A Freedmen's Bureau official commented on the 
prevalence of intemperance among the negroes, due to the 
" whisky wagons " that traveled through the country and 
the unrestrained sale of liquor in towns. Where negroes 



1 Savannah News, January n, 1869; Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, 
p. 177;' Alvord, Letters from the South, January 18, 1870. 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [382 

received money for their wages they were free to buy liquor 
as they pleased. 1 

After 1867 a great change came over the negroes in their 
relation to their former masters. General John B. Gordon, 
one of the most important witnesses called before the Ku 
Klux Committee, spoke of the changed attitude of the ne- 
groes along the coast, attributing it to the pernicious influ- 
ence of their political leaders. He said : 

I believe that if you would relieve our State of these men who 
have come there since the war, who have no property or 
interest there, except what they can get out of the negroes, 
there would be the utmost cordiality between the two races 
in that State, and there would be no conflict. 2 

Frances Butler Leigh, writing of conditions on her plan- 
tations in the neighborhood of Darien and on St. Simon's 
Island, said : 3 

The negroes this year and the following [1868 and 1869] 
seemed to reach the climax of lawless independence, and I 
never slept without a loaded pistol by my bed. Their whole 
manner was changed. They took to calling their former own- 
ers by their last name without any title before it, constantly 

spoke of my agent as old R , dropped the pleasant term 

of " Mistress," took to calling me " Miss Fanny," walked 
about with guns upon their shoulders, worked just as much 
and when they pleased, and tried speaking to me with their 
hats on, or not touching them to me when they passed me 

1 Macon Telegraph, January 6, 1869 ; Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, 
PP- 305-306; Stearns, Black Man of the South and the Rebels, p. 54; 
Alvord, op. cit. 

2 Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, p. 307. Gen. Gordon was generally 
believed to be, and probably was, the head of the Ku Klux organization 
in Georgia. 

3 Ten Years on a Georgia Plantation after the War, pp. 131-3- 



382 



KU KLUX AND SOCIAL DISORDER 383 

on the banks ... A new trouble came upon us, too, or rather 
an old trouble in a new shape. Negro adventurers from the 
North, finding that politics was such a paying trade at the 
South, began pouring in, and were really worse than the 
whites, for their Southern brethren looked upon their advent 
quite as a proof of a new order of things, in which the 
negroes were to rule and possess the land. 

In the latter part of December, 1868, and in the early 
days of 1869, the rice plantations in the swamps along the 
Ogeechee River below Savannah were terrorized by the 
appearance of armed bands of negroes who plundered and 
seized loads of rice, just ready for market. The reign of 
terror lasted for some days. A posse of citizens was or- 
ganized to aid the sheriff in quelling the disturbance, but 
the end did not come until General Sibley sent a detachment 
of troops. Fourteen of the insurgents were arrested by the 
military force and turned over to civil authorities, though 
the leaders escaped. Savannah people attributed the move- 
ment to the plot of Bradley, Sims and other leaders of the 
Loyal League. 1 But it was not clear that the League was 
responsible for this attack by the negroes on the whites 
any more than the Ku Klux were responsible for every act 
of violence committed against blacks. The editor of a 
Savannah paper wrote bitterly that Governor Bullock, in- 
stead of being in Georgia to put down troubles, was away 
looking after his own interests. The Ogeechee insurrec- 
tion, heralded by the New York Tribune as an expression 
of the negroes' " rude sense of justice ", would doubtless be 
used by the Radicals as proof that the state was still in dis- 
order and in need of further regulation from Washing- 
ton. 2 

A conflict between white people and negroes, more ser- 

1 Savannah News, January 6, 8, 1869. 

2 Ibid., January 5, 1869. 



383] 



384 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [384 

ious in political import than the Ogeechee trouble, occurred 
at Camilla in Mitchell County in the extreme southwestern 
part of the state in September, 1868. Notices were posted 
that a great Republican mass meeting was to be held in 
Camilla on September 19th, at which N. P. Pierce, candi- 
date for Congress, and John Murphy, candidate for elector, 
would be the chief speakers. On that day a body of about 
300 negroes, many of whom were armed, set out from Al- 
bany under the lead of Pierce and Murphy to march to 
Camilla. When the news came to Camilla that negroes 
were coming armed, white citizens were alarmed. The 
sheriff of the county met the procession a few miles out of 
Camilla and tried to persuade the negroes to lay aside their 
arms. When they refused, the sheriff returned to the town, 
collected a posse of citizens and met the procession as it 
was about to enter Camilla. As usually happens, some un- 
known person fired a first shot, after which shooting be- 
came general on both sides with the result that eight or 
nine blacks were killed and twenty or thirty wounded. The 
townsmen suffered slightly, several being more or less hurt. 
General Meade did not send troops to the scene of conflict 
immediately, not having confidence in the report of the 
Freedmen's Bureau agent. When General Meade failed to 
respond, Governor Bullock, in a message to the legislature 
(September 21st), urged the legislature to apply to the 
President for a military force to maintain peace in Mitchell 
County. According to his representation the Camilla af- 
fair was the result of a determined plan on the part of the 
Democrats to prevent the Republicans from holding public 
meetings. Instead of acquiescing in the governor's sugges- 
tion, the legislature appointed a joint committee to inves- 
tigate the matter. The committee reported that evidence 
before it — affidavits from Mitchell County — did not sustain 
the governor's position. It found that the trouble was 



1 



385] KU KLUX AND SOCIAL DISORDER 385 

caused by Pierce, Murphy and others trying to enter Ca- 
milla at the head of an armed company of freedmen. Civil 
authorities in Mitchell County, the committee declared, 
were fully able to execute law and had no need of military 
assistance. Furthermore, no ill feeling between whites and 
blacks resulted from the shooting affair. The report of the 
committee was adopted in the Senate and in the House, and 
the findings of the committee were sustained by General 
Meade, who refused to interfere with troops. 1 The Freed- 
men's Bureau agent at Albany was quick to send reports of 
the affair to the Northern press, which gave a much dis- 
torted view of the difficulty. The " Camilla riot " was de- 
scribed thus in a journal as conservative as the Nation: 
" The news from Georgia shows, as we expected, that the 
Camilla affair was a shocking massacre. The murders con- 
tinued to be committed through the afternoon and night, 
the woods being scoured by hunters with dogs, and ne- 
groes shot without mercy. Their offence was Radicalism." 2 
The most notorious case in the annals of crime in Georgia 
during the reconstruction period was the murder of G. W. 
Ashburn in Columbus. Ashburn was much the same type 
as the other Radical leaders who were murdered. Adkins 
and Ayer — indeed, there seemed to be something fatal in the 
initial A. Before the war Ashburn was a plantation over- 
seer, severe and brutal. With the reversal of 1867 he went 
in for politics, became a leader of the negroes in Colum- 
bus and was elected to the convention in 1867. He was the 
lowest sort of white man, lived with a negro woman at a 
public house, where he was killed by a band of men on the 
night of March 31, 1868. A fellow Republican in Colum- 

1 Senate Journal, 1868, pp. 353-6, 364-9; Annual Cyclopedia, 1868, 
PP- 315-6; Gen. Meade's report in Report of the Secretary of War, 
1868-9, vol. i, pp. 81, 124. 

2 October 1, 1868. 



386 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [386 

bus declared that he saw a Ku Klux warning sent to Ash- 
burn a few days before he was killed, which represented 
him lying in a coffin with emblems of death round about 
and inscribed with his name. 1 The most notable feature 
of the Ashburn case was the trial of nine young men of Co- 
lumbus, arrested on suspicion. The trial was noteworthy, 
not only because of the political affiliations of the murdered 
victim, but also because it was the most important case in 
Georgia in which military justice was applied to so-called 
Ku Klux outrages. The case was notable, also, for the dis- 
tinguished legal talent engaged on both sides. The military 
officers in charge of the prosecution engaged Jos. E. Brown 
to aid their side, while the defendants were represented by 
some of the ablest lawyers in Georgia — Alex. H. Stephens, 
Lucius J. Gartrell, Jas. M. Smith, Martin J. Crawford, H. 
L. Benning, R. J. Moses, J. N. Ramsey. The trial by mili- 
tary court, presided over by Brig.-Gen. Sibley, began in 
Atlanta on June 29, 1868, and proceeded until July 21st, 
when General Meade ordered suspension owing to the 
"probable immediate admission of the State of Georgia and 
consequent cessation of military authority ". The pris- 
oners were turned over to the civil authorities of Colum- 
bus, released on bail, and with that their prosecution came 
to an end. 2 

One of the reasons most frequently assigned for the or- 
ganization of the Ku Klux Klan was the need to combat 
the pernicious influence of the Loyal Leagues among the 
negroes. To a certain extent this seems to be true in 

*Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, pp. 431-2. (J. H. Caldwell.) 

2 Ibid., pp. 183-5, 431-2; Report of the Secretary of War, 1868-9, 
vol. i, pp. 108, 129 (Gen. Meade) ; account of the trial in the Atlanta 
Constitution beginning June 30, 1868, and in the New York Tribune 
during July. The testimony taken during the trial was published in 
pamphlet form. 



387] KU KLUX AND SOCIAL DISORDER 387 

Georgia, that is, so far as we consider the Ku Klux in the 
narrower sense as a definite organization. Secret associa- 
tions for the political organization of the negroes were 
formed in various parts of the state in 1867 in time to get 
ready for the first election under the Reconstruction Acts. 
After the presidential election in 1868 little was heard of 
the negro organizations except here and there in the more 
important towns. The April election for state officers was 
the season of excess of zeal among the Loyal Leagues. In 
Macon at a big negro mass meeting a banner was displayed 
bearing the warning: "Every man that don't vote the Radi- 
cal ticket this is the way we want to serve him — hang him 
by the neck ". In Athens there were many processions and 
meetings where negroes swore great oaths " to vote the 
ticket ". At a Radical meeting in Columbus the Radical 
candidate for Congress threatened in unmistakable terms 
negroes who would fail to vote for Bullock. A negro organ- 
ization in Twiggs County exacted monthly dues of 25 cents 
from its members — a kind of mutual aid society apparently, 
for it was explained to one member — " When a colored 
man killed a sheep or stole a hog, this money was to be ap- 
plied to defending him before the law." Political meetings 
were considered by negroes as their first obligation. No 
work would be done when a " meetin " was going on. Not 
only the men, but negro women as well flocked to these 
political gatherings. The organization of the Loyal League 
was especially strong in the region round about Augusta, 
which was the center of the Freedmen's Bureau agents and 
of other Northern political apostles. 1 While 1867 and 1868 
were the years of Loyal League strength, there was an out- 

1 Hull, Annals of Athens, p. 320; Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, pp. 
28, 48; Savannah News, April 1, 1868; M ill edg evil! e Federal Union, 
April 16, 23, 1867, April 7, 14, 1868; Leigh, Ten Years on a Georgia 
Plantation, p. 97 et seq. 



3§8 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



cropping of its activity later in connection with Bullock's 
attempt to reorganize the state. In May, 1869, the Ameri- 
can Union, a Radical paper in Macon, edited by a notorious 
organizer of the blacks by the name of Swayze, published 
this call to " loyal men " : 

Their fidelity has been repaid with contempt, and it now be- 
comes them as men to cement their ranks more closely than 
ever, and — defend themselves! Let them not, like cowards, 
creep under the lash that attempted to overthrow the govern- 
ment of our forefathers. Let them present an unbroken front 
and demand a tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye ! Let them 
show rebels that they have the nerve to defend themselves 
against lawlessness. Let the whole State organize into so- 
cieties — secret societies; and when rebels commit their dia- 
bolical horrors upon them, because of their opinions, retaliate 
at a ten- fold ratio. For every life that is taken lay every 
house in ashes within five miles of that spot where such blood 
is spilled — shoot down every rebel who opposes you, and turn 
the horror back upon those who are daily repeating them upon 
loyal people. Do it! and God will be your shield. 1 

To protect white citizens and to bring some order out of 
social chaos when the bayonet was law, when government 
and justice were in the hands of their opponents, the con- 
servative whites, the old ruling class, organized the Ku 
Klux movement. This was primarily a movement of regu- 
lators, to administer rude justice where courts and officers 
of law were inadequate or distrusted, or where the standard 
of justice held by those in charge of the government dif- 
fered from that of the regulators. This movement went 
on in part through the distinctive organization, known gen- 
erally as the Ku Klux Klan, and in part through unofficial 
groups acting spontaneously as conditions demanded. 2 It 



1 Savannah News, May 19, 1869. 

2 " In a wider and truer sense the phrase ■ Ku Klux Movement ' means 



389] KU KLUX AND SOCIAL DISORDER 389 

is evident that the organized body of the Ku Klux appeared 
and began operation in Georgia just before the election in 
April, 1868, for it was just at this time that Ku Klux warn- 
ings began to appear in the newspapers, which brought 
forth from General Meade his order No. 51, to prohibit the 
printing, publication or circulation of incendiary literature 
of any secret order to produce intimidation. At about 
the same time he issued another order to prevent the threat- 
ened discharge of freedmen for the purpose of controlling 
their votes. 1 The November election in 1868 again brought 
the Ku Klux into action. The Democratic majority in the 
presidential election in many counties which were Repub- 
lican in April was due in no small part to the intimidation 
of negro voters. It seems that as a definite organization 
the Ku Klux existed in only a part of the state and that its 
activities were confined almost entirely to the year 1868. 
General John B. Gordon, reputed to be the head of the or- 
ganization in Georgia, when asked by the Ku Klux Com- 
mittee what he knew of any combinations known as the Ku 
Klux, or by any other name, that had been violating the 
law, replied: 

I do not know anything about any Ku Klux organization, 
as the papers talk about it. I have never heard of anything 
of that sort except in the papers and by general report; but 
I do know that an organization did exist in Georgia at one 
time. I know that in 1868 — I think that was the time — I was. 
approached and asked to attach myself to a secret organiza- 
tion in Georgia. . . . The organization was simply this — 
nothing more and nothing less : it was an organization, a 

Reconstruction lasting from 1865 until 1876, and, in some respects, 
the attitude of the Southern whites toward the various measures of 
almost to the present day." — Fleming, Introduction to Lester and 
Wilson, Ku Klux Klan, p. 36. 

1 Savannah News, April 7, 1868 ; McPherson, Reconstruction, p. 320. 



390 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA ^90 

brotherhood of the property-holders, the peaceable, law-abid- 
ing citizens of the State, for self-protection. The instinct 
of self-protection prompted that organization ; the sense of 
insecurity and danger, particularly in those neighborhoods 
where the negro population largely predominated. The rea- 
sons which led to this organization were three or four. The 
first and main reason was the organization of the Union 
League, as they called it, about which we knew nothing more 
than this: that the negroes would desert the plantations, and 
go off at night in large numbers; and on being asked where 
they had been, would reply, sometimes, " We have been to 
the muster sometimes, " We have been to the lodge ;" some- 
times, " We have been to the meeting." These things were 
observed for a great length of time. We knew that the 
" carpet-baggers," as the people called these men who came 
from a distance and had no interest at all with us, who were 
unknown to us entirely; who from all we could learn about 
them did not have any very exalted position at their homes — 
these men were organizing the colored people. We knew that 
beyond all question. We knew of certain instances where 
great crime had been committed; where overseers had been 
driven from plantations, and the negroes had asserted their 
right to hold the property for their own benefit. Apprehen- 
sion took possession of the entire public mind of the State. 
Men were in many instances afraid to go away from their 
homes and leave their wives and children, for fear of outrage. 
Rapes were already being committed in the country. There 
was this general organization of the black race on one hand, 
and an entire disorganization of the white race on the other 
hand. We were afraid to have a public organization; be- 
cause we supposed it would be construed at once, by the au- 
thorities at Washington, as an organization antagonistic to 
the Government of the United States. It was therefore 
necessary, in order to protect our families from outrage and 
preserve our own lives, to have something that we could 
regard as a brotherhood — a combination of the best men of 
the country, to act purely in self-defense, to repel the attack 



39i] 



KU KLUX AND SOCIAL DISORDER 



391 



in case we should be attacked by these people. That was the 
whole object of this organization. I never heard of any dis- 
guise connected with it; we had none, very certainly. This 
organization, I think, extended nearly all over the State. It 
was, as I say, an organization purely for self-defense. It 
had no more politics in it than the organization of the Masons. 
I never heard the idea of politics suggested in connection 
with it. 1 

After 1868, most of the acts attributed to the Ku Klux 
were probably the action of bodies organized locally, or 
groups of citizens acting spontaneously without established 
organization or connection with similar bands elsewhere — 
a movement " sporadic rather than epidemic ". As we sift 
the testimony brought before the Ku Klux Investigating 
Committee of Congress, much of which is untrustworthy 
and of doubtful historical value, it seems fair to conclude 
that most of the activities attributed to the Ku Klux were 
for the purpose of regulating social conditions, primarily to 
frighten or otherwise deal with obstreperous or insolent ne- 
groes, to teach them their place and make them submissive 
to white people. These self-constituted regulators acted on 
the principle that the blacks would be all right if they were 
freed from the contaminating influence of some of their 
vicious leaders. Hence the murder of such men as Ash- 
burn, Adkins and Ayer. In most parts of the state, in the 
white counties and in the heaviest black counties, Ku Klux 
operations were socially regulative in character. Political 
regulation was attempted in that part of the state where 
whites and blacks were fairly evenly balanced in numbers. 
It seems hardly necessary or practicable to differentiate too 
strictly between the social and the political aspects of the 
Ku Klux movement; for after all, even the most direct 



1 Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, p. 308. 



392 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [392 

political activities, such as maneuvers to prevent the ne- 
groes from voting and to carry a Democratic majority at 
the polls, were fundamentally due to the problem of race 
relations. Republicans were as a class objects of attack 
from the conservative white people because the Republican 
party had brought about the social revolution which the 
conservatives were trying to undo. The mere fact that the 
victims were in most cases Republicans did not mean that 
they were martyrs of a political persecution. Had inves- 
tigators pressed their questions further they might have dis- 
covered that the victims were in most cases Baptists or 
Methodists, since the negroes belonged mostly to those de- 
nominations. But that would no more have proved that 
the Ku Klux movement was a religious persecution than 
that it was a political war. 

It was in the upper part of the cotton-belt that race con- 
flict in the reconstruction period assumed most acute politi- 
cal manifestation. And there is a reason. In North 
Georgia, whites were not threatened in their political con- 
trol and there was no need of a struggle to 1 maintain their 
supremacy. Acts of violence were attributable to racial 
jealousy in social and economic relations. In the parts of 
South Georgia where the blacks were greatly in the major- 
ity, two different sets of conditions arose. In the Southeast, 
along the coast, where negroes had their own way during 
the war, prospects for the whites were so bad that they had 
no hope of regaining control and so left the negroes to run 
things much their own way. This was the situation in 
Glynn, Mcintosh and other counties, where negro leaders 
like Tunis G. Campbell ruled with a high hand. Counties 
in Southwest Georgia with a heavy black majority in popu- 
lation had quite the contrary experience. In this section 
negroes were not touched by new notions from invading 
armies, as were the blacks in the upper cotton-belt in the 



393] KU KLUX AND SOCIAL DISORDER 393 

latter part of the war, and Radical leaders seemed not to 
get control of them as in other sections. In the region of 
the large plantations the freedmen continued with much of 
their old deference to the whites. That is the reason why 
Mr. Nelson Tift, a Democrat, was elected to Congress in 
1868 from this decidedly black district. There were no 
Republican white leaders of any importance, the Freed- 
men's Bureau in this section was never strongly established, 
and in the absence of opposing influence, the negroes, ac- 
customed to defer to the whites, left to the white Demo- 
crats the right of way. Moreover, the prosperous planta- 
tion owners were more friendly in their relations with the 
freedmen than those whites who were more nearly the eco- 
nomic equals of the negroes. A prominent Republican 
politician, who was for some time agent of the Freedmen's 
Bureau in Americus, controlling three large counties, gave 
witness to the fact that few complaints of unfair treatment 
of the negroes were reported to him in that region. 1 But 
in the part of the black belt where chances were more evenly 
balanced, where negroes were only slightly in majority, the 
ground was debatable and worth fighting for. The task of 
regaining political control was by no means hopeless to the 
whites. 

The method of informal administration of justice and 
irregular social control, which became notorious during the 
reconstruction period in the South, was far from being a 
new invention of the time. In its simplest elements it was 
the adaptation of the old patrol system of slavery times to 
new conditions. Personal settlement of disputes without 
recourse to law was another symptom of the Ku Klux 
movement widely prevalent in the South in ante-bellum 
times. The Nation understandingly though unsympatheti- 
cally noted this fact : 



1 Ku Klux Committee, vol. vi, p. 1083 (W. C. Morrill). 



394 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



The Ku Klux Klan, let us add, is nothing new. The South 
before the war was one vast Ku Klux Klan. Every man was 
a member of the organization, and the state governments 
made no attempt to interfere with it, and its victims were rare 
because dissenters from the popular creed did not enter the 
South. What makes it seem so novel now is that the state 
governments are in the hands of the dissenters and there is a 
large body of them in every state. 1 

The increase in social disorder in the years after 1867 
was due to racial antagonism between whites and blacks. 
The task of the dominant white population in the first years 
after the war was to keep the negro to his old labor; in 
1867 to this task was superadded that of keeping the negro 
to a realization of his inferior social status though the law 
declared him equal to the white in political and civil rights 
and privileges. On one side was law and on the other was 
the social custom of generations. Ideally, it may have been 
a humane and civilizing act to protect the weaker race with 
the power of the ballot; but practically, when enfranchise- 
ment was conferred against the will of the white people 
and contrary to their profound sense of right and fitness, 
the new power left the freedmen with but little more actual 
freedom in 1872 than they enjoyed in 1866. 



1 September 10, 1868. 



CONCLUSION 



Emancipation was the basic fact of reconstruction. The 
institution of slavery provided not only an industrial sys- 
tem of production, but a social organization by which two 
alien races managed to live together. The release of half 
a million slaves in Georgia meant an immediate revolution 
in the agricultural labor system. And the destruction of 
the old order brought into question social relations between 
whites and blacks that had been silenced for more than two 
centuries in the established relation of master and slave. 
Slavery was maintained by the capitalist owner as a profit- 
able economic system. By the non-slaveowner it was cher- 
ished as a social order which fixed the barrier between the 
poverty of the white and the poverty of the black. It was 
this social value of slavery to the non-slaveholders that 
made the conflict of 1861 one of North and South rather 
than an industrial conflict between capitalists and non-capi- 
talists within the South. Had slavery been only an indus- 
trial scheme, instead of being the " cornerstone " of the 
entire social structure, the non-slaveholders of the South 
would have echoed widely the protest of Hinton Rowan 
Helper, 1 instead of smothering it as an outcry against the 
eternal order of things. 

The seven years of Georgia history from 1865 to 1872 
mark only the beginnings of the social and economic trans- 
formation that has taken place since the war. The forces 
then set at work by emancipation and by the terrific eco- 

1 The Impending Crisis. 
395] 395 



396 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [396 

nomic waste of the war have continued until the present 
day. The only unity that these seven years, the reconstruc- 
tion period, have, apart from the entire period since 1865, 
comes from certain political forces, which reacted upon 
social and industrial life and ceased in Georgia in 1872. 
From 1865 to 1872, industry, social relations and politics, 
mutually reactive, moulded the condition of affairs in 
Georgia. When Democratic rule replaced Republicanism, 
one set of abnormal influences was put at rest. For the 
years to come, economic and social problems were all-en- 
grossing, and politics, no longer a matter of self-preserva- 
tion, became a diversion. 

The first and immediate result of emancipation was 
chaos. Agriculture in 1865, when the laborers were testing 
their freedom, resulted only in waste. During the first 
seven years of experiment, the farmer, in despair of raising 
any crop with free labor, determined to keep the old sys- 
tem of cultivation and labor as nearly intact as possible. 
The planter himself did not organize or develop a new 
scheme of cultivation to utilize free labor, but yielded to 
changes only under sternest necessity. A very great de- 
crease in the supply of agricultural labor with only slightly 
lessened demand made the laborer the master of the market 
The laborer's control of the situation resulted in schemes 
of cultivation which freed the negro from a large measure 
of the supervision to which he had been subjected under 
slavery. The helplessness of the planter gave opportunity 
to the laborer to attain economic freedom. 

The limitation of the labor supply, the demand of negroes 
to be renters rather than hired laborers, the failure in crops 
for several seasons, and the difficulty of obtaining credit, 
all tended to diminish the size of the farming unit. The 
greater price of labor in the cost of production made the 
farmer economize as much as possible in that item. Less 



397] CONCLUSION 397 

labor, less land, more fertilizer, intensive rather than ex- 
tensive cultivation was the program of the most successful 
planters. Very little change resulted, however, in the one- 
crop system of cultivation. Cotton remained king. The 
best land was given to cotton, and only the poorer patches 
devoted to food crops. There was little in the way of crop 
diversification. But by the end of the reconstruction period, 
the farmer, though he was loth to prove his prophecy 
false, was discovering that the staple could, after all, be 
raised with free labor. 

From the point of view of the planter, reconstruction 
meant a struggle day in and day out against economic ruin, 
from which only the sturdiest survived. The natural ad- 
vantages of rich soil and favorable climate had made profit- 
able the wasteful economy of slave production. The 
planter had been protected by these natural advantages so 
that even the least skilful managers had been able to profit, 
just as the unskilful manufacturer in the North subsisted 
on profits from tariff protection, not earned by his fore- 
sight or managing ability. In the South, the climate was 
the only factor of production untouched by war and recon- 
struction. Even the fertility of the soil was becoming more 
and more exhausted each year. When the planter's capital 
was solely in land, not chiefly in slaves, he could not move 
readily from worn-out to virgin soil. Moreover, except in 
part of the southwestern section, the rich soil of Georgia 
had all been appropriated before the war. 

From the point of view of the freedman, reconstruction 
gave an opportunity and a hope for economic betterment. 
The varied motives which made the negro desire forty acres 
and a mule were large factors, not merely in his indus- 
trial, but in his social advance, as well. The conscious de- 
sire to improve his condition, aroused by emancipation, 
while not universal among the freedmen, was a motive 



398 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ 3 gg 

force in many which helped in the advance, not only of the 
negro, but of the whole community. Socially, the demand 
of the freedman for a farm of his own had large signifi- 
cance. More than any laws or moral codes the independ- 
ent farm was important in developing in the negro a respect 
for family integrity. The change which many plantations 
underwent, when the negroes no longer worked together in 
gangs under overseers, and no longer lived in the old slave 
quarters, but tenanted small farms, each one with his own 
house on his own patch of ground, or grouped with a few 
others at a nearby creek or spring, was a record of social 
as well as economic transformation. The freer life gave 
added responsibility, which, as always, resulted in the weak- 
est relapsing into a lower state, while the strong developed 
greater strength. 

The industrial revolution of the reconstruction period 
was almost wholly confined to agriculture, which still re- 
mained the great economic interest of the state, despite the 
cataclysm following upon emancipation. The growth in 
other interests, manufacturing, trade, the expansion of rail- 
roads, except the great work of repair which the devasta- 
tion of war occasioned, was merely a normal continuation 
of the process of development begun before i860. Textile 
manufacturing, with the utilization of white labor from the 
mountain and Piedmont region, belongs to a later period of 
the industrial development of Georgia. 

Since the economic changes of 1865-72 were mainly 
agricultural and had grown out of emancipation, these 
changes were most marked where there were the greatest 
number of slaves to be freed, and where the large plantation 
was the industrial unit. Central Georgia, the cotton-belt 
from the southwest diagonally across the state, with the 
fringe of coast counties, experienced a much greater de- 
gree of economic reconstruction than North Georgia or the 



399] CONCLUSION 399 

pine barrens of the southeast. The grain-producing area 
of Northwest Georgia, after it had once recovered from the 
blight of Sherman's army, progressed markedly in the later 
years of reconstruction. Having comparatively few ne- 
groes to begin with, this section was not vitally disturbed 
by emancipation in its agricultural production. 

While economic disturbance was less, social disorder was 
greater in the sections where negroes were less numerous. 
It was here that jealousy and rivalry were most acute, 
when slavery was abolished, leaving only race as a barrier 
between the poor white and the poor black. The race prob- 
lem, one of the greatest problems which reconstruction 
aroused and bequeathed to a later generation, began further 
back than reconstruction. It began with the landing of the 
first negroes brought to the Colony of Virginia, but the in- 
stitution of slavery, while not settling the problem, at least 
provided a method of adjustment whereby the negro passed 
from barbarism to some measure of civilization. Eman- 
cipation itself was enough to generate race antagonism be- 
tween some classes of whites and blacks. But Republican 
reconstruction extended and intensified this racial antago- 
nism a hundredfold. This was the most important and en- 
during contribution of Congressional Reconstruction. 

The political results of reconstruction were, in the long 
run, the least important of all in the later history of 
Georgia. The greatest influence of Republicanism was its 
reaction on social relations and on economic conditions. 
While the Republican government for three years was both 
extravagant and corrupt, Georgia managed to recover 
rather easily from its financial abuse and mismanagement. 
In this respect, Georgia was decidedly less hard pressed 
than other Southern states in reconstruction, and it was 
certainly more fortunate than states where such influence 
as the Tweed Ring was in control. The " undoing of re- 



400 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA 



construction " applies merely to politics, for the social and 
economic reconstruction of Georgia after the war continues 
to-day. Politically, the greatest work of reconstruction was 
to constitute the negro a voter, and to make the government 
Republican in party politics. In 1872, the state govern- 
ment was completely in control of the Democratic party. 
To make this political reversal possible, many negroes, by 
intimidation, persuasion, in some cases by their own indif- 
ference, ceased to be voters, and gradually the negro be- 
came of less and less importance in politics. Thus the 
greatest political achievement of Congressional Reconstruc- 
tion was undone. But, it was not entirely undone, for the 
whites, in removing the political rights from the negroes, 
also limited their own political freedom. The Southern 
white had no freedom of choice — he had to be a Democrat, 
whether or no. 

In its largest sense, Reconstruction in Georgia meant a 
wider democratization of society. Before the war, how- 
ever, Georgia was far from being in the control of the 
" slave oligarchy ", such as is frequently pictured. The 
yeoman of moderate means, who might own a few slaves, 
was not a negligible factor in ante-bellum life. Alexander 
H. Stephens was one of this class, and Joseph E. Brown, 
one of the most potent leaders ever known in Georgia, 
was distinctly one of the " plain people ". The change that 
came by reconstruction was one of degree rather than of 
kind. When former leaders were set aside by the terms of 
Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction, the way 
was opened to the middle class. The weakening of the 
economic supremacy of the planter class also meant that 
other kinds of wealth than land and slaves became the basis 
of social prestige. The reconstruction period was followed 
by shifting, not only in class dominance, but also in sec- 
tional dominance. The center of influence moved further 



401] CONCLUSION 4 0i 

to the uplands, with growing importance of the Piedmont 
region at the expense of the cotton-belt. The rocket-like 
rise of Atlanta in the Piedmont is in part illustrative of 
these new forces that reconstruction brought into action. 

In a still more fundamental way reconstruction, with 
emancipation as the central fact, brought about a greater 
social democracy. No society, in which one-half of the 
members were slaves, could be democratic in any nineteenth 
century meaning of the term. The extension of " the 
people " to include the black half as well as the white half 
of the population, was a great step forward toward the real 
republic of which Georgia made a part. The greatest con- 
structive achievement of the war, as worked out in recon- 
struction, was the establishment of the negro in freedom. 
Republican reconstruction, however, failed to establish him 
in permanent equality with the whites in either political 
rights or social privileges. While the white man was mas- 
ter of the slave, slavery was the master of the white man. 
Abolition freed the white as well as the black. But still the 
race problem, and the cry of Negro ! Negro ! — the slogan of 
political demagogues, who magnify and distort a very real 
difficulty in playing upon the passions of the less educated 
whites — rise to curtail freedom of thought and act. The 
revolution which brought about these changes was painful 
and costly to the last degree. As in most great changes, 
the benefits are enjoyed vicariously. Those who pay the 
price do not enjoy the product. If the revolution of Civil 
War and Reconstruction wrought anything of enduring 
value, it was in the advance toward greater social democ- 
racy. Since the transaction was a forced sale and the price 
extorted, not paid willingly, it was not with Georgia to 
reason whether or not the product of Reconstruction was 
worth the cost. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Bibliographical Aids 

Brooks, Robert Preston. A Preliminary Bibliography of Georgia His- 
tory. Athens, Ga., 1910. 

Most complete bibliography of Georgia history published, but 
incomplete for the reconstruction period. 

Dailey, Carrie L. List of Georgia State Publications. Atlanta, 1908. 

DeRenne, W. J. Catalogue of Books relating to the History of Georgia 

in the Library of Wymberly Jones DeRenne, Wormsloe, Georgia. 

Compiled by Oscar Wegelin. Savannah, 191 1. (Privately printed.) 

Mr. DeRenne' s remarkable collection contains some rare pam- 
phlets relating to the reconstruction period. 

Phillips, U. B. Georgia and State Rights. Washington, 1902. 

The very full, annotated bibliography for the period before i860 
is a suggestive guide to material for the later period as well. 

Phillips, U. B. Public Archives of Georgia. Annual Report of the 
American Historical Association, 1903, vol. i. 

Phillips, U. B. Georgia Local Archives. Annual Report of the Ameri- 
can Historical Association, 1904. 

Lists and tabulations of records in various counties and towns. 

Woolley, E. C. The Reconstruction of Georgia. New York, 1901. 

The bibliography gives only the most evident authorities and 
public documents. 

General Histories of Georgia 

Arthur, T. S. and Carpenter, W. H. History of Georgia from its 
Earliest Settlement to the Present Time. Philadelphia, 1882. 
Of no value. 

Avery, I. W. History of the State of Georgia, 1850- 1881. New York, 
1881. 

The most important of all histories of Georgia. Though no 
references are given, newspapers have been drawn on for most 
of the material. The point of view is decidedly partisan, for 
Col. Avery took active part in the reconstruction of Georgia. The 
book is written as a vindication of Governor Brown's career. 
The author was editor of the Atlanta Constitution from 1869 to 
1874, hence the journalistic character of the volume. 
402 [402 



4 3 ] BIBLIOGRAPHY 403 

Evans, Lawton B. A History of Georgia. New York, 1906. 

Written for use in schools. The best complete history of 
Georgia in brief compass. 

McPherson, J. H. T. The Civil Government of Georgia. New York, 
1908. 

Brief text-book. 

Mitchell, Frances L. Georgia Land and People. Atlanta, 1900. 

Chapter on the War abounds in glorification of the South and 
criminal charges against the North. 

Smith, Chas. H., pseud. Bill Arp. School History of Georgia. Boston, 
1893. 

Interesting chapter on " The Common People and the Aris- 
tocracy." 

Smith, George Gilman. Story of Georgia and the Georgia People, 
1 732- 1860. Macon, 1900. 

Last three chapters on Religion, Education, Cities. 

(Southern Historical Association). Memoirs of Georgia. 2 vols. 
Atlanta, 1895. 

Civil and military history, with an account of industrial re- 
sources and biographical sketches. 

Stevens, O. B. and Wright, R. F. Georgia, Historical and Industrial. 
Atlanta, 1901. 

Compiled by the Georgia Department of Agriculture. Follows 
Janes, Manual of Georgia, for the period before 1876. 

Local Histories 

Avery, I. W. Atlanta, History and Advantages. Louisville, Ky., 1892. 

In World's Fair Series of Great American Cities. In nature 
of an advertisement of the city with short historical sketch and 
biographical notes. 

Bowen, Eliza A. Story of Wilkes County. Washington, Ga., 1870. 

Butler, John C. Historical Record of Macon and Central Georgia. 
Macon, 1879. 

Material from local newspapers and reminiscences of old 
citizens. 

Clarke, E. Y. Atlanta Illustrated. Atlanta, 1881. 

Dutcher, Salem (and Jones, C. C. Jr.) Memorial History of Augusta, 
Georgia. Syracuse, N. Y., 1890. 

Contains little of interest for the period after the war. 

Hull, A. L. Annals of Athens, Ga. 1801-1901. Athens, 1906. 

Disconnected reminiscences of people and events. Gives some 
interesting items on conditions of war and adjustment in 1865. 
Written as newspaper articles for the Southern Watchman in 
Athens. 



4 04 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ 4 q 4 

Lee, F. D. and Agnew, J. L. Historical Record of the City of 
Savannah. Savannah, 1869. 

In the war period only military events are recorded. 

Martin, John H., ed. Columbus, Georgia, 1827-1865. Columbus, 1874. 

Martin, Thos. H. Atlanta and its Builders. 2 vols. 1002. 

Gives commercial and industrial progress of Atlanta. 

Phillips, U. B. Historical Notes of Milledgeville, Ga. Gulf States 
Historical Magazine, November, 1903. 

Pioneer Citizens' Society History of Atlanta. Atlanta, 1902. 

Reed, Wallace P., ed. History of Atlanta, Georgia. Syracuse, 
N. Y., 1889. 

Best history of Atlanta, but, like other local histories, undis- 
criminating. Material from newspapers and oral testimony. 

Sholes, A. E. (compiler). Chronological History of Savannah. 
Savannah, 1900. 

Vedder, O. F. and Weldon, Frank, (and Jones, C. C. Jr.) History of 
Savannah. Syracuse, N. Y., 1890. 

Wilson, Adelaide. Historic and Picturesque Savannah. Boston, 1899. 

Chapter on Savannah in the war by C. H. Olmstead from 
recollection. 



Special Histories, Articles, Pamphlets. 

Banks, Enoch Marvin. Economics of Land Tenure in Georgia. New 

York, 1905. Columbia University Studies in History , Economics, 

and Public Law, vol. xxiii, no. 1. 

Deals mainly with recent conditions, but valuable for a brief 
historical treatment of the subject. 

Barrow, David C. "A Georgia Plantation." Scribner's Monthly, vol. 
xxi, p. 830. 

Account of the Barrow plantation in Oglethorpe County. 

Brooks, Robert Preston. The Agrarian Revolution in Georgia, 1865- 
1912. Madison, Wis., 1914. Bulletin of the University of Wis- 
consin, no. 639, History Series, vol. Hi, no. 3. 

Important monograph contains valuable chapters on the agri- 
cultural changes after the war. 

Brown, Joseph M. The Mountain Campaigns in Georgia. War 
Scenes on the W. and A. R. iR. Buffalo, 1886. 

Bullock, Rufus B. " Reconstruction in Georgia." Independent, March 
19, 1903. 

Vindication of military reconstruction by one who was the 
reconstruction governor of Georgia. 



405] BIBLIOGRAPHY 405 

Bullock, Rufus B. Have the Reconstruction Acts been fully executed 
in Georgia? Speech at Albion, N. Y., Oct. 17, 1868. pph. 
Washington. 

Bullock, Rufus B. Remarks of Governor Bullock before the Judiciary 
Committee of the Senate, Mar. 2, 1870. Washington, 1870. pph. 

Bullock, Rufus B. Address of iRufus B. Bullock to the People of 
Georgia, October, 1872. pph. 

Calvin, M. V. Popular Education in Georgia. Augusta, Ga., 1870. pph. 

Carter, E. R. The Black Side. Atlanta, 1894. 

An account by a colored preacher of the part played by negroes 
in the development of Atlanta. Biographical sketches and photo- 
graphs of leading negroes. 

Conyngham, D. R. Sherman's March through the South. New York, 
1865. 

By a war correspondent for the New York Herald. 

Derry, J. T. " Georgia in the Confederacy." In The South in the 
Building of the Nation, vol. vii. 

Dickson, David. System of Farming, 1869. Reprint edited by G. F. 
Hunnicutt, Atlanta, 1910. 

Dickson was one of the most noted farmers of Georgia. 

Du Bois, W. E. B. The Negro Landholder of Georgia. Washington, 
1901. Bulletin of the U. S. Department of Labor, no. 35. 
Valuable monograph by an eminent colored scholar. 

Dutcher, Salem. How to Vote: How to Obtain Pardon. Augusta, 
Ga., 1865. 

Contains extracts from official documents. 

Evans, Lawton B. " Georgia in the New Nation, 1865-1909." In The 
South in the Building of the Nation, vol. vii. 

French, S. G. " Kennesaw Mountain." Southern Historical Society 
Papers, vol. ix, p. 505. 

Extracts from a diary. 

Gaines, W. J. African Methodism in the South ; or Twenty-five Years 
of Freedom. Atlanta, 1890. 

Goetchius, Henry R. " Litigation in Georgia during the Reconstruction 

Period." Report of the Georgia Bar Association. Atlanta, 1897. 

Presidential address before the fourteenth annual session of 
the Georgia Bar Association. 

Hammond, N. J. The University of Georgia. Atlanta, 1893. 
Hedley, F. Y. Marching through Georgia. Chicago, 1885. 



4 o6 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ 40 6 

History of the Baptist Denomination. Compiled for the Christian 
Index. Atlanta, 1881. 

Hood, John B. Advance and Retreat. New Orleans, 1880. 
Account of the campaign in Georgia, 1864. 

Howard, F. T. In and Out of the Lines ; Incidents during the Occupa- 
tion of Georgia by the Federal Troops in 1864-5. New York, 1905. 

Hull, A. L. Historical Sketch of the University of Georgia. Atlanta, 
1894. 

Janes, Thomas P. Hand-book of Georgia. Atlanta, 1876. 
Compilation of statistics. 

Johnston, Joseph E. Narrative of Military Operations. New York, 1874. 
Treats of the campaign in Northwest Georgia. 

Jones, C. C. Jr. " Negro Slaves during the War." Magazine of 
American History, August, 1886. 

Jones, C. C. Jr. " Sherman's March from Atlanta to the Coast." 
Southern Historical Society Papers, vol. xii. 

Jones, C. C. Jr. " The Siege and Evacuation of Savannah, December, 
1864." Southern Historical Society Papers, vol. xvii. 

Jones, Charles E. Education in Georgia. Washington, 1889. U. S. 
Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, no. 4. 

Jones, Charles E. Georgia in the War. 1861-1865. Atlanta, 1909. 

Roster of Georgia troops, names of Georgia officers in Con- 
federate and state armies, members of the Confederate Con- 
gress, etc. 

Kennaway, John H. On Sherman's Track, or The South after the 
War. London, 1867. 

By an Englishman who traveled in Georgia in November, 1865. 

Lewis, D. W. Report on Public Education. Milledgeville, i860. 
Appendix gives school statistics for i860. 

Manigault, Louis. iRecords of a Rice Plantation in the Georgia Low- 
lands. MSS. 

Original records are in private possession. A copy, made un- 
der the direction of U. B. Phillips, is in the Georgia Historical 
Society Library in Savannah. 

Nichols, George Ward. Story of the Great March. New York, 1865. 

Phillips, U. B. Georgia and State Rights. Washington, 1902. 

Monograph of unusual excellence. Deals with the period be- 
fore 1861. Valuable for political and economic maps and for its 
comprehensive bibliography. 

Phillips, U. B. History of Transportation in the Eastern Cotton Belt 
to i860. New York, 1908. 

Contains good map of transportation routes in Georgia in i860. 



407] 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



407 



Pierson, H. W. Letter to Charles Sumner with statement of Outrages 
upon Freedmen in Georgia. Washington, 1870. 

Testimony taken from negroes by a Northern clergyman. 

Power, S. F. "The Last Battle of the Late War" (West Point, Ga.) 
Southern Historical Society Papers, vol. xxii. 

Radical Rule. Military Outrage in Georgia. Arrest of Columbus Pris- 
oners with Facts connected with their imprisonment and release. 
Louisville, Ky., 1868. 

Reed, John C. " What I Know of the Ku Klux Klan." Uncle Remus 
Magazine, January through November, 1908. 

Riley, B. F. History of the Baptists in the Southern States East of 
the Mississippi. Philadelphia, 1898. 

Savannah Board of Education. Annual Reports of Public Schools for 
the City of Savannah and the County of Chatham. 1869-1872. 
Savannah. 

Sherman, William T. " Gleanings from Despatches." Southern His- 
torical Society Papers, vol. xiii. 

Sherwood, Adiel. Gazetteer of Georgia. Atlanta, i860. 

Contains tables of railroads, factories, newspapers, etc. in 
Georgia before the war, with a map of the state in i860. 

Smith, Charles H. Bill Arp's Peace Papers. New York, 1873. 

Smith, G. G. History of Methodism in Georgia and Florida from 
1785 to 1865. Macon, 1881. 

Stearns, Charles. The Black Man of the South and the Rebels, or the 

Characteristics of the former and the recent outrages of the latter. 

New York, 1872. 

Written by a " Northern teacher, missionary, and planter, and 
an eye-witness of many of the scenes described." Lived on a 
plantation in Columbia County after the war. Native of Massa- 
chusetts. 

Stephens, Alexander H. Reviewers Reviewed, a Supplement to the 
War between the States. New York, 1872. 

Appendix contains material on the reconstruction period. 

Turner, Henry G. " Georgia." In Why the Solid South? (Edited 
by Hilary A. Herbert.) 

Woolley, Edwin C. The Reconstruction of Georgia. New York, 1901. 

Columbia University Studies in History, Economics, and Public 

Law, vol. xiii, no. 3. 

Deals with the political and constitutional aspects of recon- 
struction. 



4 o8 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ 4G g 

Georgia Biography, Memoirs, Correspondence, Speeches. 

Andrews, Eliza Frances. War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864- 
1865. New York, 1908. 

Sprightly narrative of life in the last year of the war. 

Andrews, Garnett. Reminiscences of an Old Georgia Lawyer. Atlanta, 
1870. 

Andrews was a prominent Unionist in a strong secession dis- 
trict. Nothing of importance on reconstruction. 

Avary, Myrta Lockett, ed. Recollections of Alex. H. Stephens. New 
York, 1910. 

Contains Stephens' Prison Journal, which he kept while a 
prisoner at Fort Warren, Boston, from May 11 to October 26, 
1865. 

Avery, I. W., ed. In Memory — Alexander H. Stephens. Atlanta, 1883. 

Bell, Hiram P. Men and Things. Atlanta, 1907. 
Disjointed reminiscences. 

Boykin, Samuel, ed. Howell Cobb. Memorial Volume. Philadelphia, 
1870. 

Brief biographical chapter with eulogies by various persons. 

Caldwell, John H. Reminiscences of the Reconstruction of Church 
and State in Georgia. Wilmington, Del., 1895. 

Candler, A. D. and Evans, C. A., ed. Cyclopaedia of Georgia. 3 Vols. 
Atlanta, 1906- 

Sketches of places and people. Published by subscription — 
hence eulogistic. 

Clark, Richard H. Memoirs, ed. Lollie Belle Wylie, Atlanta, 1898. 

Cleveland, Henry. Alexander H. Stephens. Philadelphia, 1866. 
Contains letters and speeches of Stephens. 

Campbell, Tunis G. Sufferings of the Rev. T. G. Campbell and his 
family in Georgia. Washington, 1877. pph. 

Cobb, Howell. Correspondence. MSS. in private possession in Athens, 
Ga. 

Many of Cobb's letters have been published in the Annual 
Report of the American Historical Association, 191 1, vol. ii. 

Cobb, T. R. R. Correspondence. 1860-1862. (Ed. A. L. Hull) 
Southern Historical Society Papers, vol. xxviii, and Publications 
of the Southern History Association, vol. xi. 

Felton, Mrs. W. H. My Memoirs of Georgia Politics. Atlanta, 191 1. 

Fielder, Herbert. Life and Times and Speeches of Joseph E. Brown. 
Springfield, Mass., 1883. 
Highly eulogistic. 



* 



409] BIBLIOGRAPHY 409 

Gay, Mary A. H. Life in Dixie during the War, 1861-1865. Atlanta, 1897. 
Deals with Georgia — written from recollection. 

Gordon, John B. Reminiscences of the Civil War. New York, 1003. 

Hill, B. H. Address before the Georgia Branch of the Southern His- 
torical Society, Atlanta, Feb. 18, 1874. Southern Historical Society 
Papers, vol. xiv. 

Hill, B. H., Jr. Senator Benj. H. Hill of Georgia. Life, Speeches, and 

Writings. Atlanta, 1893. 

Contains important speeches of the reconstruction period and 
Hill's " Notes on the Situation," 1867, written for the Augusta 
Chronicle. 

Johnston, Richard Malcolm and Browne, William Hand. Life of 
Alexander H. Stephens. Philadelphia, 1878. 
Contains important letters and speeches. 

Knight, Lucian Lamar. Reminiscences of Famous Georgians. 2 vols. 
Atlanta, 1907. 

LeConte, Joseph. Autobiography, ed. W. D. Armes. New York, 1903. 

Leigh, Frances Butler. Ten Years on a Georgia Plantation Since the 

War. London, 1883. 

Very valuable description of conditions on sea-island planta- 
tions, written by the daughter of Fannie Kemble, whose Journal 
of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation in 1838-1839 contains the 
well-known account of slavery as she saw it. 

Northern, W. J. {ed.) Men of Mark in Georgia. 6 vols. Atlanta, 1907-8. 

Norton, F. H. Life of Alexander H. Stephens. Alden, N. Y., 1883. 

Pendleton, Louis. Alexander H. Stephens. Philadelphia. 1907. 
In series of American Crisis Biographies. 

Phillips, U. B. (ed.) Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander 
H. Stephens and Howell Cobb. Annual Report of the American 
Historical Association, 191 1, vol. ii. Washington, 1913. 

Phillips, U. B. The Life of Robert Toombs. New York, 1913. 

Best account yet published of Toombs and his time. Com- 
paratively little material for the period after the war. 

Scott, W. J. Biographic Etchings of Ministers and Laymen of the 
Georgia Conference. Atlanta, 1895. 

Scott, W. J. Seventy-one Years in Georgia — An Autobiography. 
Atlanta, 1897. 

Smith, G. G. Life and Times of George Foster Pierce. Sparta, Ga., 
1888. 

Pierce was for many years Bishop of the Methodist Church, 
South, in Georgia. 



4 io RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ 4IO 

Sparks, W. H. The Memories of Fifty Years. Philadelphia, 1870. 

Speer, Emory. Lincoln, Lee, Grant and other Biographical Addresses. 

New York, 1909. 

Contains address on Joseph E. Brown, delivered at Emory 
College, June 7, 1905. 

Stovall, Pleasant G. Robert Toombs. New York, 1892. 

Toombs, Robert. Letters to Alex. H. Stephens. MSS. Copies made 

by U. B. Phillips. 

Views of Toombs on some of the political issues of Recon- 
struction. Most of these letters have been published in Annual 
Report of the American Historical Association, 191 1, vol. ii. 

Trent, Wm. P. Southern Statesman of the Old Regime. New York, 
1897. 

Essays on Toombs, Stephens and others. 

Waddell, Jas. D. (ed.) Biographical Sketch of Linton Stephens. 
Atlanta, 1877. 

Linton Stephens was the brother of Alex. H. Stephens. The 
volume contains a few letters and documents of interest. 

Wadley, Rebecca. A Brief Record of the Life of William M. Wadley 
written by his Eldest Daughter. New York, 1906. (Privately 
printed.) 

Wadley was President of the Central of Georgia R. )R., 1866- 
1882, an important agent in the railroad history of Georgia after 
the war. 

Georgia Public Documents 

Acts of the General Assembly, 1860-1873. 

Georgia Senate. Journal, 1860-1873. 

Georgia House of Representatives. Journal, i860- 1873. 

Journal of the Public and Secret Proceedings of the Convention of the 
People of Georgia held in Milledgeville and Savannah, 1861. 
Milledgeville, 1861. 

Journal of the Proceedings of the Convention of the People of Georgia, 
in Milledgeville, October and November, 1865. Milledgeville, 1865. 

Journal of the Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of the 
People of Georgia, Atlanta, 1867- 1868. Augusta, 1868. 

Harrison, Z. D., ed. Constitution, Ordinances, and Resolutions of the 
Georgia Convention, 1867-1868. Atlanta, 1868. 

Clark, R. H„ Cobb, T. R. R. and Irwin, D., ed. The Code of the State 
of Georgia, 1861. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



411 



Irwin, D. Code of 1865. Revised and corrected. Pub. 1867. 

Irwin, D., Lester, G. N., and Hill, W. B. Code of 1868. Pub. 1873. 

Confederate Records of the State of Georgia. Compiled and published 
under the authority of the Legislature by A. D. Candler. Vols. 
I-IV, VI. Atlanta, 1909-11. 

Annual Reports of the Comptroller General. 1860-1873. 

Annual Reports of the Officers of the Western and Atlantic R. R., 
1866. Published later in the Journal of the Senate. 

Georgia Reports. Decisions of the Supreme Court of Georgia. 

Report of the Commissioners on Freedmen's Code, submitted to Gov- 
ernor Jenkins. December 19, 1866. pph. 

Reports of Committees 

Report of the Finance Committee on the report of N. L. Angier, 
Treasurer, on the condition of the treasury. Macon, 1869. 

(Report of the Joint Committee to investigate the condition of the 
Western and Atlantic R. R. Atlanta, 1869. 

Proceedings of Committee appointed to investigate charges made 
by Angier against Bullock. Report of the committee. 

Testimony taken by the committee to investigate the official conduct 
of Rufus B. Bullock. Report, 1872. 

Report of the Committee of the Legislature to investigate the 
Bonds of the State of Georgia, 1872. 

Reply of Henry Clews and Company to the Annual Report of 
N. L. Angier, 1872. 

Evidence taken by the joint committee of the legislature, appointed 
to investigate the management of the State Road under the admin- 
istration of R. B. Bullock and Foster Blodgett. Atlanta, 1872. 

Majority and Minority reports of the Committee to investigate the 
fairness of the State Road Lease. Testimony, 1872. 

Georgia Newspapers 

Guides to newspaper collections 

Bulletin of the Library of Congress. 

List of newspapers in the Congressional Library. 

Harden. Wm. List of newspaper files in the Library of the 
Georgia Historical Society, Savannah. In Gulf States Historical 
Magazine, March, 1903. 

Owen, Thos. M. List of newspaper files in the Carnegie Library, 
Atlanta. Gulf States Historical Magazine, May, 1903. 



4 i2 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ 4I2 

Phillips, U. B. Georgia and State Rights. Bibliography, pp. 
219-20. 

Gives a list of Georgia newspapers and their location for the 
ante-bellum period. Some of those cited belong to the recon- 
struction period as well. 

Athens 

Southern Watchman (weekly) 

^ In the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court of Clarke 
County are files from 1865, occasional numbers missing. 

Atlanta 

Atlanta Constitution (daily) 

Complete file in the office of the Constitution, beginning June 
17, 1868. 

In Carnegie Library, Atlanta, complete file from January, 1869. 
In The Library of Congress, file beginning July 16, 1871. 

Atlanta Daily New Era 

In Carnegie Library, Atlanta, October, 1866 to June, 1867; Janu- 
ary, 1868 to December, 187 1. 

In Library of Congress, January 1, 1868 to Dec. 4, 1869; Aug. 
3, 1870 to Dec. 31, 1871. 

Daily Atlanta Intelligencer 

In Carnegie Library, Atlanta, January, 1869 to April, 1871. 
In Library of Congress, June 6, 1865 to Nov. 21, 1866; Jan. 1, 
1867 to Dec. 25, 1867. 

Complete office file in private possession in Atlanta. 

Daily True Georgian 

In Carnegie Library, Atlanta, June 28 to Dec. 24, 1870. 

Atlanta Daily Sun 

In Carnegie Library, Atlanta, May 18, 1870 to Dec. 31, 1872. 
In Library of Congress, August 23, 1871 to Dec. 31, 1872. 

Southern Confederacy (daily) 

In Carnegie Library Atlanta, March, 1861 to May, 1863. 

Augusta 

Augusta Daily Chronicle and Sentinel 

Complete file in the office of the Chronicle. 
In the Ordinary's office, Augusta, file beginning July, 1868. 
In the Library of Congress, May 24, 1865 to Dec. 30, 1865; 
June 2 to Nov. 1, 1866. 

Augusta Daily Constitutionalist 

Complete file in the office of the Chronicle. 

In the Ordinary's office, Augusta, file beginning July, 1868. 

Augusta Daily National Republican 

In the Ordinary's office, Augusta, July to December, 1868. 
In the Library of Congress, Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 1868. 

Augusta Daily Press 

In the office of the Ordinary, Augusta, January to April 18, 1869. 



4! 3] BIBLIOGRAPHY 4^ 

Columbus 
Daily Sun 

In Library of Congress, Oct. 1 to November 25, 1865. 

Columbus Enquirer 

Complete file in the office of the Enquirer. 

Macon 

Macon Daily Journal and Messenger 
Macon Daily Telegraph 

The valuable files of these two papers were burned or damaged 

by water in the Macon Telegraph building on Nov. 3, 1910. Only 

a few volumes were saved. 

MlLLEDGEVILLE 

Milled geville Federal Union (weekly.) 

Complete file in the office of the Union-Recorder, Milledgeville. 

Southern Recorder 

File, 1865-1868, privately owned in Atlanta. 

Savannah 

Daily Advertiser 

Incomplete file in the library of the Georgia Historical Society, 
Savannah. 

Daily Herald 

In the office of the Savannah News, file from Jan. 11, 1865 to 
April 1866, when it was merged with the Xews. 

Savannah Daily News and Herald 

In the office of the Savannah News is the file of the Morning 
Xews, beginning January, 1866, merged with the Herald in April, 
1866. In 1869 the name was changed to Savannah Morning News. 
In the Library of Congress, Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 1870. 

Savannah Daily Republican 

In the office of the Savannah News, July 1 to Dec. 30, 1865. 
The Library of Congress has the office file, July 1, 1861 to Dec. 
30, 1865; July 2, 1866 to Dec. 31, 1872. 

Southern Cultivator. A Practical Newspaper for the Farm, the Garden, 
and the Family Circle. Monthly. Published at Athens, Ga. 
Complete file in the office of the Cultivator in Atlanta. 

Scrapbooks 

Brown Scrapbooks 

This is a very valuable collection of clippings from newspapers 
from all sections of the state, pertaining to the political career 
of Joseph E. Brown from 1855 to his death. The collection was 
made by Mrs. Joseph E. Brown and is now owned by a member 
of the Brown family. The clippings are carefully marked with 
the names and dates of the papers from which they are taken. 

Howard Scrapbooks 

In Carnegie Library, Atlanta. Compiled by F. T. Howard. 
The usefulness of the clippings is impaired by the omission on 
many of them of the names and dates of the papers from which 
they are taken. 



4 i4 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [4^ 

General Newspapers, Periodicals 
New York Times, established 185 1. 
New York Herald, established 1835. 
New York Tribune, established 1841. 
The Nation, New York, established 1865. 
Harpers Weekly, New York, established 1857. 

Townsend Library of Newspaper Clippings. 

In Columbia University Library. A vast collection of clippings 
dealing with the Civil War and Reconstruction from the most 
important New York papers. 

American Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events, New 
York; after 1874, continued as Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia. 

De Bow's Review, New Orleans, Charleston, Washington, 1846-64; 
New York, 1866-70. 

Hunt's Merchant Magazine and Commercial Review, New York, 1839-70. 

Commercial and Financial Chronicle. New York, established 1865. 

In January, 1871, Hunt's Merchant Magazine and the Com- 
mercial and Financial Chronicle were merged together. The 
former was a monthly, the latter a weekly. 

Poor, H. V. Manual of the Railroads of the United States, New York, 
1868. 

Contemporary Northern Accounts 

Alvord, J. W. Letters from the South relating to the Condition of the 

Freedmen. Washington, 1870. 

Alvord, General Superintendent of Education of the Freed- 
men's Bureau, spent a little more than a week in January, 1870, 
in Georgia on a tour of inspection. Letters are addressed to 
Maj. Gen. O. O. Howard. 

Andrews, Sidney. The South since the War. Boston, 1868. 

Andrews was the Washington correspondent for the Boston 
Advertiser ("Dixon") and for the Chicago Tribune ("Israel"). 
He was in Georgia from Oct. 24, to Dec. 3, 1865. 

Schurz, Carl. Report on conditions in the South, submitted to Presi- 
dent Johnson in the fall of 1865. Sen. Exec. Doc, 39 C, 1 S., no. 2. 
Also letters of Schurz in the Johnson Papers in the Library of 
Congress, MSS. 

Schurz's point of view as ardent advocate of negro rights pre- 
vented a dispassionate observation of conditions in the South 
on his part. 

Grant, U. S. Brief report of a rapid tour of inspection in the South in 
1865 [appended to the above report of Carl Schurz.] 



415] BIBLIOGRAPHY 415 

Nordhoff, Charles. The Cotton States in the Spring and Summer of 
1875. New York, 1876. 

Reid, Whitelaw. After the War; a Southern Tour. May 1, 1865 to 
May 1, 1866. Cincinnati, 1866. 

Somers, Robert. Southern States Since the War, 1870-1871. London, 
1871. 

Trowbridge, J. T. Picture of the Desolated States, 1865-1868. Hart- 
ford, 1868. 

Truman, B. C. Report of affairs in the Southern states. Sen. Exec. 

Doc, 39 €., 1 S., no. 43. 

Truman, sent by the President to investigate conditions in the 
Southern states in 1865-6, was one of the most fair-minded of 
Northern travelers in the South. His report and his letters to 
the New York Times are of special importance. 

Watterson, Henry. Letters to President Johnson in Johnson MSS. 

Report of Watterson's views on conditions in the South in 1865. 

Books and Articles Dealing with the South and Reconstruction 

Atlantic Monthly, 1901. Articles on Reconstruction. 

Banks, Enoch Marvin. Labor Supply and Labor Problems. Annals 
of the American Academy, January, 1910. 

Beard, J. M. Ku Klux Sketches. Philadelphia, 1877. 

Blaine, James G. Twenty Years of Congress from Lincoln to Garfield. 
2 vols. Norwich, Conn., 1893. 

Brown, William Garrott. The Lower South in American History. 
New York, 1902. 

Bruce, Philip Alexander. " The Rise of the New South." Philadelphia. 
1905. History of North America, vol. xvii. 

Clews, Henry. Twenty-eight Years in Wall Street. London, 1888. 

DuBois, W. E. B. "Reconstruction and its Benefits." American His- 
torical Review, July, 1910. 

Dunning, William Archibald. Essays in the Civil War and Recon- 
struction. New York, 1904. 

Dunning, William Archibald. Reconstruction, Political and Economic, 
New York, 1907. 

Fleming, Walter L. Documentary History of Reconstruction. 2 vols. 
Cleveland, Ohio, 1906-7. 

Fleming, Walter L. 44 Prescript of the Ku Klux Klan." Southern 
History Association Publications, vol. vii, 1903. 



4i6 RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ 4I 6 

Grady, Henry W. " Cotton and its Kingdom." Harper's Magazine, 
October, 1881. 

von Halle, Ernst. Baumwollproduktion und Pflanzungswirthschaft in 
den Nordamerikanischen Siidstaaten. Zweiter Teil. Sezessions- 
krieg und Rekonstrucktion, 1861-1886. Leipzig, 1906. 

Hammond, M. B. The Cotton Industry. New York, 1897. 

Kelsey, Carl. The Negro Farmer. Chicago, 1903. 

King, Edward. The Great South. Hartford, Conn., 1875. 

Ingle, Edward. Southern Sidelights. New York, 1896. 

Lester, J. C. and Wilson, D. L., ed. W. L. Fleming. Ku Klux Klan, 
its Origin, Growth, and Disbandment. 1905. 

McPherson, Edward. Political History of the United States of America 
during the Period of Reconstruction. Washington, 1875. 

Meade, George Gordon, ed. The Life and Letters of George Gordon 
Meade. 2 vols. New York, 1913. 

Moore, Frank, ed. Rebellion Record. 12 vols. New York, 1861-8. 

Peirce, Paul Skeels. The Freedmen's Bureau. University of Iowa 
Studies, vol. Hi, no. 1. Iowa City, 1904. 

Pennypacker, I. R. General Meade. New York, 1901. Great Com- 
mander Series. 

Phillips, U. B. " The Decadence of the Plantation System." Annals 
of the American Academy, Philadelphia, January, 1910. 

" Conservatism and Progress in the Cotton Belt." South Atlantic 

Quarterly, January, 1904. 

" The Economic Cost of Slaveholding in the Cotton Belt." Poli- 
tical Science Quarterly, June, 1905. 

"The Economics of the Plantation." South Atlantic Quarterly, 

July, 1903. 

" The Origin and Growth of the Southern Black Belts." Ameri- 
can Historical Review, July, 1906. 

" The Plantation as a Civilizing Factor." Sewanee Review, July, 

1904. 

" Racial Problems, Adjustments and Disturbances." In the South 

in the Building of the Nation, vol. iv. 

ed. " Plantation and Frontier." Documentary History of Ameri- 
can Industrial Society, vols, i and ii. 



417] BIBLIOGRAPHY 4x7 

Pollard, E. A. The Lost Cause 'Regained. New York, 1868. 
Reed, John C. The Brothers' War. Boston, 1905. 

Rhodes, James Ford. History of the United States, 1850-1877. 7 vols. 
New York, 1906-10. 

Schurz. Carl. Reminiscences. 3 vols. Vol. iii edited by Frederic Ban- 
croft and W. A. Dunning. New York, 1907-1908. 

Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers, ed. Frederic Ban- 
croft. 6 vols. New York, 1913. 

Schwab, J. C. Financial and Industrial History of the South during 
the War. New York, 1901. 

" The South during the War." In Cambridge Modern History, 

vol. vii. 

Sherman, William T. Memoirs. 2 vols. New York, 1892. 

Sinclair, William A. The Aftermath of Slavery. Boston, 1905. 

Stone. Alfred Holt. " The Negro and Agricultural Development." 
Annals of the American Academy. January. 1910. 

Taylor, Richard. Destruction and Reconstruction. New York, 1883. 

Watkins, James L. King Cotton — Historical and Statistical Review, 

1790-1908. New York, 1008. 

Williams, G. W. History of the Negro Race in America. 2 vols. New 
York, 1883. 

Wood, Robert C. Confederate Hand-Book. New Orleans. 1900. 

U. S. Documents 
Congressional Globe for the 39th. 40th, 41st and 42d Congresses. 
Reports of the Department of Agriculture. 
Reports of the Secretary of the Treasury. 
Reports of the Secretary of War. 

War of the Rebellion, Official Records of the Union and Confederate 
Armies. Series 1, vols. 9, 12. 24: pt. 3, 47, pt. 3, 49, pts. 1 and 2, 53; 
series iv, vol. iii. 

39 Congress, 1 Session 

Senate Executive Documents, nos. 2, 26, 37. 
House Executive Documents, nos. 11, 34, 70, 99. 
Reports of the Committees of the House of Representatives, vol. ii, 
Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction. 



418 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA [ 4I g 



2d Session. 

Senate Executive Document, no. 2. 

40 Congress, 2 Session. 

House Executive Documents, no. 291. 

3 Session. 

House Miscellaneous Documents, p. 52. 

41 Congress, 1 Session. 

Senate Executive Documents, no. 3, 41. 
Senate Report of Committees, no. 58. 
House Miscellaneous Documents, no. 34. 

2 Session. 

Senate Executive Document, no. 13. 
House Executive Documents, no. 82, 288. 

3 Session. 

Senate Reports of Committees, no. 308. 

42 Congress, 2 Session. 

Senate Reports of Committees, vol. ii, pts. vi and vii. Report of the 
Joint Select Committee to inquire into the Affairs of the late in- 
surrectionary states. Ku Klux Report, Georgia testimony. Re- 
ferred to in foot-notes as Ku Klux Committee. 

43 Congress, 2 Session. 

Senate Executive Document, no. 23. 

Biographical Congressional Directory, 1 774- 191 1. Washington, 1913. 
Census, i860, 1870, 1880. 



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2. *The Inheritance Tax. By Max West, Ph.D. Second Edition, 1908. Price, $2.00. 

3. History of Taxation in Vermont. By Frederick A. Wood, Ph.D. {Not sold separately.) 

VOLUME V, 1895-96. 498 pp. Price, cloth, $3.50. 

1. Double Taxation in the United States. By Francis Walker, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 

3. The Separation of Governmental Powers. 

By William Bondy, LL.B., Ph.D. Price, $i.oo» 

3* Municipal Government in Michigan and Ohio. 

By Delos F. Wilcox, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 

VOLUME VI, 1896. 601 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50; Paper covers, $4.00. 

History of Proprietary Government in Pennsylvania. 

By William Robert Shepherd, Ph.D. 

VOLUME VII, 1896, 512 pp. Price, cloth, $3.50. 

1. History of the Transition from Provincial to Commonwealth Govern- 

ment in Massachusetts. By Harry A. Cushing, Ph.D. Price, $2.00. 

2. * Speculation on the Stock and Produce Exchanges of the United States. 

By Henry Crosby Emery, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

VOLUME VIII, 1896-98. 551 pp. Price, cloth, $4.00. 

1. The Struggle between President Johnson and Congress over Recon- 
struction. By Charles Ernest Chadsey, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 
8. Recent Centralizing Tendencies in State Educational Administration. 

By William Clarence Webster, Ph.D. Price, 75 cents. 

3. The Abolition of Privateering and the Declaration of Paris. 

By Francis R. Stark, LL.B., Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 
4* Public Administration in Massachusetts. The Relation of Central to 
Local Activity. . By Robert Harvey Whitten, Ph.D. Price, £1.00. 

VOLUME IX, 1897-98. 617 pp. Price, cloth, $4,00. 

1. * English Eocal Government of To-day. A Study of the Relations of Cen- 
tral and Local Government. By Milo Roy Maltbie, Ph.D. Price, $2.00. 
3. German Wage Theories. A History of their Development. 

By James W. Crook, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 
3. The Centralization of Administration in Kew York State. 

By John Archibald Fajslie., Ph.D. Price, iz^oo. 



t VOLUME X, 1898-99. 500 pp. Price, cloth, $3.50. 

1. Sympathetic Strikes and Sympathetic Lockouts. 

By Fred S. Hall, Ph.D. Price, $1.00, 
2 * Rhode Island and the Formation of the Union. 

By Frank Greene Bates, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

3. Centralized Administration of Liquor Laws in the American Common- 
wealths. By Clement Moore Lacey Sites, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 

VOLUME XI, 1899. 495 pp. Price, cloth, $4.00; paper covers, $8J0. 

The Growth of Cities. By Abna Ferrin Weeee, Ph. D. 

VOLUME XII, 1899-1900. 586 pp. Price, cloth, $4.00. 

1. History and Functions of Central Labor Unions. 

By William Maxwell Burke, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 

3. Colonial Immigration Laws. By Edward Emberson Proper, A.M. Price, 75 cents. 

3. History of Military Pension Legislation in the United States. 

By William Henry Glasson, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 

History of the Theory of Sovereignty since Rousseau, 

By Charles E. Merriam, Jr., Ph.D. Price, #1.50. 

VOLUME XIII, 1901. 570 pages._ Price, cloth, $4.00. 

1. The Legal Property Relations of Married Parties. 

By Isidor Loee, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

2. Political I^ativisin in New York State. By Louis Dow Scisco, Ph.D. Price, $2.00. 

3. The Reconstruction of Georgia. By Edwin C. Woolley, Ph.D. Price, $x.oo, 

VOLUME XXV, 1901-1902. 576 pages. Price, cloth, $4.00. 

1. Loyalism in New Xork during the American Revolution. 

By Alexander Clarence Flick, Ph.D. Price, $2.00. 

8. The Economic Theory of Risk and Insurance. 

By Allan H. Willett, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

3. The Eastern Question s A Study in Diplomacy. 

By St ephen P. H. Duggan, Ph.D. Price, Si. 00. 

VOLUME XV, 1902. 427 pp. Price, cloth, $3.50 ; paper covers, $3.00. 

Crime in Its Relations to Social Progress. By Arthur Cleveland Hall, Ph.D, 

VOLUME XVI t 1902-1903. §47 pp. Price, cloth, $4.00. 

1. The Past and Present of Commerce in Japan. 

By Yetaro Kinosita, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

3. The Employment of Women in the Clothing Trade. 

By Mabel Hurd Willet, Ph.D. Price, $1.50, 

3* The Centralization of Administration in Ohio. 

By Samuel P. Orth, Ph.D. Price, $1,30. 

VOLUME XVII, 1903. 635 pp. Price, cloth, $4,00. 

1. * Centralizing Tendencies in the Administration of Indiana. 

By William A. Rawles, Ph.D. Price, $2.50. 

3. Principles of Justice in Taxation. By Stephen F. Weston, Ph.D. Price, $2.00. 

VOLUME XVIII, 1903. 753 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50. 

1. The Administration of Iowa. By Harold Martin Bowman, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

2. Target and the Sis Edicts. By Robert P. Shepherd, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

3. Hanover and Prussia 1795-1803. By Guy Stanton Ford, Ph.D. Price, $2.00. 

VOLUME XIX, 1903-1905. 588 pp. Price, cloth, $4.00. 

1. Josiah Tuckei", Economist. By Walter Ernest Clark, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

3. History and Criticism of the Labor Theory of Value in English Political 
Economy. By Albert C. Whitaker^PIi.D. Price, #1.50. 

3. Trade Unions and the !Law in New York. 

By George Gorham Groat, Ph.D. Price, $i.oo. 

VOLUME XX, 1904. 514 pp. Price, cloth, $3.50. 

1. The Office of the Justice of the Peace in England. 

By Charles Austin Beard, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

3. A History of Military Government in Newly Acquired Territory of the 
United States. By David Y. Thomas, Ph. D. Price, $2.00. 

VOLUME XXI, 1904. 746 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50. 

1. * Treaties, their Making and Enforcement. 

By Samuel B. Crandall, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

3. The Sociology of a New York City Block. 

By Thomas Jesse Jones, Ph.D. Price, $1,00. 

3. Pre-Malthusian Doctrines of Population. 

By Charles E. Stangeland, Ph.D. Price, $2.50. 



VOLUME XXII, 1905. 520 pp. Price, cloth, $3.50; paper coders. $3.00. 

The Historical Development of tiie Poor !Law of Connecticut. 

By Edward W. Capen, Ph.D. 

VOLUME XXIII, 1905. 594 pp, Price, cloth, $4,00. 

1. Tlie Economics of Land Tenure in Georgia. 

By Enoch Marvin Banks, Ph.D. Price, $i ,00. 

2. Mistake in Contract. A Study in Comparative Jurisprudences 

By Edwin C. McKeag, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 

3. Combination in the Mining Industry. By Henry R. Musssy, Ph.D. Price s $1.00. 

4. The English Craft Guilds and the Government. 

By Stella Kramer, Ph.D. Price, gi.oo. 

VOLUME XXIV, 1805. 521 pp. Price, cloth, $4.00. 

1. The Place of Magic in the Intellectual History of Europe. 

By Lynn Thoejidiks, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 

2. The Ecclesiastical Edicts of the Theodosian Code. 

By William K. Boyd, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 

3. * The International Position of Japan as a Great Power. 

By Seiji G. Hishida, Ph.D, Price, $2.00. 

VOLUME XXV, 1908-07. 600 pp. (Sold only in Bets.) 

1. * Municipal Control of Public Utilities. By O. L. Pond, Ph.D. {Not sold separately.) 

2. The Budget in the American Commonwealths. 

By Eugene E. Agger, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

3. The Finances of Cleveland. By Charles C. Williamson, Ph.D. Price, $2.00. 

VOLUME XXVI, 1907. 559 pp. Price, cloth, $4.00, 

1. Trade and Currency in Early Oregon. By James H. Gilbert, Ph.D. Price, gi.oo. 

2. Luther's Table TalK.. By Preserved Smith, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 

3. The Tobacco Industry in the United States. 

By Meyer Jacoestbin, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

4. Social Democracy and Population. By Alvan A, Tenney, Ph.D. Price, 75 cents. 

VOLUME XXVII, 1907. 578 pp. Price, cloth, $4.00. 

1. The Economic Policy of Robert Walpole. By Norris A. Brisco, Ph.D. Price, £1.50. 

2. The United States Steel Corporation. By Abraham Berglund, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

3. The Taxation of Corporations in Massachusetts. 

By Harry G. Friedman, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

VOLUME XXVIII, 1907. 564 pp. Price, cloth, $4.00. 

1. DeWitt Clinton and the Origin of the Spoils System in New York. 

By Howard Lee McBain, Ph. D. Price, $1.50. 

2. The Development of the Legislature of Colonial Virginia. 

By Elmer I. Miller, Ph.D. Price, gi.50. 

3. The Disti'ibution of Ownership. By Joseph Harding Underwood, Ph.D. Price,gi.5o. 

VOLUME XXIX, 1908. 703 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50. 

1. Early New England Towns. By Anne Bush MacLear, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

3. New Hampshire as a Royal Province. By William H. Fry, Ph.D. Price, $3.00. 

VOLUME XXX, 1908. 712 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50; paper covers, $4.00. 

The Province of New Jersey, 1664—1738. By Edwin P. Tanner, Ph.D. 

VOLUME XXXI, 1808. 575 pp. Price, cloth, $4.00. 

1. Private Freight Cars and American Railroads. 

By L. D. H. Weld, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

2. Ohio before 1850. By Robert E. Chaddock, Ph.D. Price, gi.50 

3. Consanguineous Marriages in the American Population. 

By George B. Louis Arner, Ph.D. Price, 75 cents. 

4. Adolphe Quetelet as Statistician. By Frank H. Hankins, Ph.D. Price, £1.25. 

VOLUME XXXII, 1908. 705 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50; paper covers, $4.00. 

The Enforcement of the Statutes of Laborers. By Bertha Haven Putnam, Ph.D. 

VOLUME XXXIII, 1908-1909. 635 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50. 

1. Factory Legislation in Maine. By E. Stagg Whitin, A.B. Price, $x.oo. 

3. * Psychological Interpretations of Society, 

By Michael M. Davis, Jr., Ph.D. Price, £2.00. 
3c * An Introduction to the Sources relating to the Germanic Invasions. 

By Carlton Huntley Hayes, Ph.D. Price, gi.50. 



VOLUME XXXIV, 1909. 628 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50. 

1. [89] Transportation and Industrial Development in the Middle West. 

By William F. Gepkart, Ph.D. Price, $a.oe. 
$. [90] Social Reform and the Reformation. 

By Jacob Salwyn Schapiro, Ph.D. Price, $1.35. 

3. [91] Responsibility for Crime. By Philip A. Parsons, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

VOLUME XXXV, 1909. 588 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50. 

1. [93] The Conflict over the Judicial Powers in the United States to 1870. 

By Charles Grove Haines, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 
8. [93] A Study of the Population of Manhattan ville. 

By Howard Brown Woolston, Ph.D. Price, $1.25. 
8. [94] * Divorces A Study in Social Causation. 

By James P. Lichtenbergbr, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

VOLUME XXXVI, 1910. 542 pp. Priee, cloth, $4.00. 

1. [95] * Reconstruction in Texas. By Charles William Ramsdell, Ph.D. Price, $2.30. 
3. [96] * The Transition in Virginia from Colony to Commonwealth. 

By Charles Ramsdell Lingley, Ph.D. Price, fz. 50. 

VOLUME XXXVII, 1910. 606 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50. 

1. [97] Standards of Reasonableness in Local Freight Discriminations. 

By John Maurice Clark, Ph.D. Price, lz.25, 
3. [98] Legal Development in Colonial Massachusetts. 

By Charles J. Hilkey, Ph.D. Price, $1.25. 
S. [99] * Social and Mental Traits of the Negro. 

By Howard W. Odum, Ph.D. Prise, $2.0©. 

VOLUME XXXVIII, 1910. 463 pp. Price, cloth, $3.50. 

1. [lOOl The Public Domain and Democracy. 

By Robert Tudor Hill, Ph.D. Price, $a.oe. 

8. [101] Organismic Theories of the State. 

By Francis W. Coker, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

VOLUME XXXIX, 1910-1911. 651 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50. 

1. [103] The Making of the Balkan States. 

By William Smith Murray, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 
3, [103] Political History of New York State during the Period of the Civil 
War. By Sidney David Brummer, Ph. D. Price, 3.00. 

VOLUME XL, 1911. 633 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50. 

1. [104] A Survey of Constitutional Development in China. 

By Hawkling L. Yen, Ph D. Price, $1.00. 

3. [105] Ohio Politics during the Civil War Period. 

By George H. Porter, Ph.D. Price, $1.75. 

8. [106] The Territorial Basis of Government under the State Constitutions. 

By Alfred Zantzinger Reed, Ph.D. Price, $1.75. 

VOLUME XLI, 1911. 514 pp. Price, cloth, $3.50; paper covers, $3.00. 

[107] New Jersey as a Royal Province. By Edgar Jacob Fisher, Ph. D. 

VOLUME XLII, 1911. 400 pp. Price, cloth, $3.00 ; paper covers, $2.50. 

[108] Attitude of American Courts in Labor Cases. 

By George Gorham Groat, Ph.D. 

VOLUME XLIII, 1911. 633 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50. 

1. [109] industrial Causes of Congestion of Population in New York City. 

By Edward Ewing Pratt, Ph.D. Price, $2.00. 
3. [HO] Education and the Mores. By F. Stuart Chapin, Ph.D. Price, 75 cents. 

3. [Ill] The British Consuls in the Confederacy. _ 

By Milledge L. Bonham, Jr., Ph.D. Price, $2.oe. 

VOLUMES XLIV and ZLV, 1911. 745 pp. 
Price for the two volumes, cloth, $6.00 ; paper covers, $5.00. 

[113 and 113] The Economic Principles of Confucius and his School. 

By Chen Huan-Chang, Ph.D. 

VOLUME XL VI, 1911-1912. 623 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50. 

1. [114] The Ricardian Socialists. By Esther Lowenthal, Ph.D. Price.$i.oo 

3. [115] Ibrahim Pasha, Grand Vizier of Suleiman, the Magnificent. 

By Hester Donaldson Jenkins, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 

3. [116] *Syndicalism in France. _ _ . 

By Louis LeIine, Ph.D. Second edition, 1914, Price, $1 50. 

4. [117] *A Hoosier Village. By Newell Leroy Sims, Ph.B, Price. $1.50, 



VOLUME XLVII, 1912, 544 pp. Price, cloth, $4.00, 

1. [118] The Politics ofMichigan, 1865-1878, 

By Harrietts M. Dilla, Ph.D. Price, $2.00. 

2. [1 19] *Tiie United States Beet Sugar Industry and the Tariff. 

By Roy G. Blaksy, Ph.D. Price, $3.00, 

VOLUME XL VIII, 1912. 493 pp. Price, cloth, $4.00. 

1. [130] Isidor of Seville, By Ernest Brbh/ut, Ph. D. Price, $2 .00. 

2. [121] Progress and Uniformity in Child-Labor Legislation. 

By William Fielding Ogburn, Ph.D. Price, #1.75. 

VOLUME XLIX, 1912. 592 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50. 

1. [122] Bi'itish Radicalism 1791-1797. By Walter Phklps Hall. Price, $2.00. 

9. [123] A Comparative Study of the Law of Corporations. 

By Arthur K. Kuhn, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

S. [124] *The Negro at Work in New York City. 

By George E. Haynes. Ph.D. Price, $h.*$. 

VOLUME L, 1911. 481 pp. Price, cloth, $4.00. 

1. [ 125] *The Spirit of Chinese Philanthropy. By Yai Yue Tsu. Ph.D. Price, Ji.oo. 

2. [126] *The Alien in China. By Vi. Kyuin Wellington Koo, Ph.D. Price, #2-50. 

VOLUME LI, 1912. 4 to. Atlas. Price: cloth, $1.50; paper covers, $1.00. 

1. [127] The Sale of Liquor in the South. 

By Leonard S. Blakby, Ph.D. 

VOLUME LII, 1912. 489 pp. Price, cloth, $4.00. 

1. [128] "Provincial and Local Taxation in Canada. 

By Solomon Vinbbbrg, Ph.D. Price, fi.se. 

3. [129] *The Distribution of Incomes. 

By Frank Hatch Streightoff, Ph.D. Price, fx. 50. 

8. [130] *The Finances of Vermont. By Frederick A. Wood, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 

VOLUME LIU, 1913. 789 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50; paper, $4.00. 

[131] The Civil War and Reconstruction in Florida. By W. W. Davis, Ph.D. 

VOLUME LIV, 1913. 604 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50. 

1« [132] * Privileges and Immunities of Citizens of the United States. 

By Arnold Johnson Libn, Ph.D. Price, 75 cents. 

2. [133] The Supreme Court and Unconstitutional Legislation. 

By Blaine Free Moore, Ph.D. Price, $1.00. 

S. [134] *Indian Slavery in Colonial Times within the Present Limits of the 
United States. By Almon Wheeler Laubbr, Ph.D. Price, $3.00. 

VOLUME LV, 1913. 665 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50. 

1. [135] *A Political History of the State of New Tork. 

By Homer A. Stbbbins, Ph.D. Price, $4.09, 

2. [ 136] *The Early Persecutions of the Christians. 

By LbonH. Canfibld, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 



VOLUME LVI, 1913. 406 pp. Price, cloth, $3.50. a?r 

1. [137] Speculation on the New York Stock Exchange, 1904-1907. 

By Algernon Ashburner Osborne. Price, $1.50. 
3. T138] The Policy of the United States towards Industrial Monopoly. 

By Oswald Whitman Knauth, Ph.D. Price $2 00. 

VOLUME LVII, 1914. 670 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50. 

1. [139] *The Civil Service of Great Britain. 

By Robert Moses, Ph.D. Price, $2.00. 
3. [140] The Financial History of New York State. 

By Don C. Sowers. Price, $2.50. 

VOLUME LVIII, 1914. 684 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50; paper, $4.00. 

[141] Reconstruction in North Carolina. 

By J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, Ph.D. 

VOLUME LIX, 1914. 625 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50. 

1. [142] The Development of Modern Turkey by means of its Press. 

By Ahmed Emin, Ph.D. Price, ji.oo. 

2. [143] The System of Taxation in China, 1614-1911. 

By Shao-Kwan Chen, Ph. D. Price, $1.00. 

3. [144] The Currency Problem in China. . By Wen Pin Wei, Ph.D. Price, $1.25. 

4. [145] *Jewish Immigration to the United States. 

By Samuel Joseph, Ph.D. Price, gi.50. 

VOLUME LX, 1914. 516 pp. Price, cloth, $4.00. 

1. [146] *Cons tan tine the Great and Christianity. 

By Christopher Bush Coleman, Ph.D. Price, $2.00. 

2. [147] The Establishment of Christianity and the Proscription of Pa- 

ganism. By Maud Aline Huttmann, Ph.D. Price, $9.00. 

VOLUME LXI, 1914. 496 pp. Price, cloth, $4.00. 

1. [148] *The Railway Conductors: A Study in Organized Labor. 

By Edwin Clyde Robbins. Price, $1.50. 
». [149] *The Finances of the City of New York. 

By Yin-Ch'tj Ma, Ph.D. Price, $2.50. 

VOLUME LXII, 1914. 414 pp. Price, cloth, $3.50. 

[150] The Journal of the Joint Committee of Fifteen on Reconstruction, 
39th Congress, 1865— 1S67. By Benjamin B. Kendrick, Ph.D. Price, $ 3.00. 

VOLUME LXIII, 1915. 561pp. Price, cloth, $4.00. 

1. [151] Emile Durkheim's Contributions to Sociological Theory. 

By Charles Elmer Gehlkb, Ph.D. Price, fi.50. 

2. [153] The Nationalization of Railways in Japan. 

By Toshiharu Watarai, Ph.D. Price, fx.35. 

3. [153] Population: A Study in Malthusianism. 

By Warren S. Thompson, Ph.D. Price |i. 75. 

VOLUME LXIV, 1915. 646 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50. 

1. [154] Reconstruction in Georgia. By. C. Mildred Thompson, Ph.D. Price, $3.00. 
ft. [155] The Review of American Colonial Legislation by the fKing in 
Council. By Elmer Beecher Russell, Ph.D. Price, $1. 75. 

VOLUME LXV, 1915. 496 pp. Price, cloth, $4.00. 

1. [156] *The Sovereign Council of New France. 

By Raymond Du Bois Cahall, Ph.D. Price, $1.25. 
2* [157] Scientific Management. By Horace Bookwaltbr Drury, Ph.D. Price, $1. 75. 

VOLUME LXVI, 1915. 

I. [158] *The Recognition Policy of the United States. 

By Julius Goebel, Jr., Ph.D. Price, $2.00. 
3. [159] Railway Problems in China. By Chih Hsu, Ph.D. Price, $1.50. 

3. [160] Mohammedan Theories of Taxation. By Nicolas P. Aghnides. (In press.) 

The price for each separate monograph is for paper-covered copies; separate monographs marked*, can 
be supplied bound in cloth, for 50c. additional. All prices are net. 



The set of sixty-five volumes, covering monographs 1-157, is offered, bound, for $214: except that 
Volume II can be supplied only in part, and in paper covers, no. l of that volume being out of print. 
Volumes III, IV and XXV, can now be supplied only in connection with complete sets. 

For further information, apply to 

Prof. EDWIN R. A. SELIGMAN, Columbia University, 

or to Messrs. LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., New York. 
London: P. S. KING & SON, Ltd., Orchard House, Westminster. 



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